Effect of Spacing and Corm Size on Growth, Flowering and Corm Production in Gladiolus cv. White Prosperity under Kashmir Conditions

A study was carried out during 2005 - 2006 at the Division of Floriculture, Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, SKUAST-K, Shalimar, to determine the effect of corm size (4.1-4.5, 4.6-5.0 and 5.1-5.5 cm) and spacing (10 x 20, 15 x 20 and 20 x 20 cm) on growth, flowering and corm production in gladiolus cv. White Prosperity. Largersized corms (5.1-5.5 cm) with wider plant spacing (20 x 20 cm) gave the best performance. Number of days taken to spike emergence, plant height, number of leaves plant-1, spike length, number of florets spike-1 and diameter of floret were observed to be significantly better with larger-sized corms. Minimum days taken to slipping were also found to be due to larger size of the corms. Number of corms plant-1, corm weight, diameter of corm, number of cormel plant-1 and cormels weight plant-1, in terms of both quality and quantity, showed increasing trend with an increasing corm-size and spacing. Therefore, wider spacing and larger corm size may be recommended for realising better quality and higher production in gladiolus cv. White Prosperity under Kashmir conditions.