Studies on the effect of gladiolus corm orientation on crop parameters-An approach for mechanizing planting operation

Gladiolus (Gladiolus grandiflorus L.) a member of iridaceae family better known as “queen of the flowers” is one of the popular bulbous ornamental plant and is mainly grown for its spikes. Traditionally gladiolus is planted manually by making furrow lines and placing the corms manually in the furrows at required spacing with apex in vertical position and thereafter covering it with soil. The operation can be mechanized by introducing a suitable planter for large scale cultivation, however, till date no such planter is available for this crop. Proper corm orientation is a bigger challenge with mechanical planting as it can not place the corms in upright position as achievable in manual planting. The experiment conducted with five different corm orientation revealed that corms planted in upright positionhadearly emergence, higher plant height, early spike initiation, early first floret appearance and more spike length compared to thecorms planted in other orientation.