FOLIAR APPLICATION OF ZINC, CALCIUM AND BORON INFULUENCES YIELD PARAMETERS OF GLADIOLUS cv. ALDEBRAN

Abstract

Gladiolus a potential cut flower grown throughout the world for its elegant attractive spikes of different hues and good keeping quality. The experiment consisted of two levels each of Zn (Zn0 and Zn1), Ca (Ca0 and Ca1) and B (B0 and B1) which were sprayed on gladiolus plant. The dose of foliar spray of Zn, Ca and B were 0.75%, 0.50% and 0.20%, respectively. Application of Ca hastened the heading (64.54 days) over the B and Zn. The yield of spike increased significantly with foliar application of Zn and Ca, maximum yield of spike (16904.50) was recorded with application of Zn 0.75%. The corms of larger size were obtained in the plants sprayed with Ca (5.69 cm) and smallest corms were produced under boron application. The interactions were no-effective. The weight of corm increased by foliar application of Zn (117.89 g), B (116.48 g) and Ca (115.64 g) over control (113.51 g), (114.92 g) and (115.76 g), respectively. The interaction effect was significant between B × Ca (118.79 g) and over control (112.85 g). Interaction between (Zn × Ca) and (Zn × B) was found to be non significant and more corms (3.30) were produced in the plants fertilized with Zn.