Effect of plant growth regulators on growth and spike yield of gladiolus cultivars

The field experiment was conducted during Rabi season 2010-2011 with combination of different sources of plant growth regulators to study their effect on vegetative growth and spike yield of gladiolus. Experiment consisted of 16 treatments each replicated thrice and laid out in RBD. The results obtained showed that the plant growth regulators significantly affected the growth parameters of gladiolus such as maximum values of plant height (80.78cm and 82.22cm in Novalux and White Prosperity, respectively), number of shoots in Novalux and White Prosperity (3.44 in each), number of leaves /plant (20.78 and 20.44 in Novalux and White Prosperity, respectively), minimum days to spike initiation in Novalux (76.67days) and in White Prosperity (78 days), minimum days to opening of the first floret (81.67 days in Novalux and 88.67 days in White Prosperity), first florets durability (7.56 days in Novalux and 7.11 days in White Prosperity), spike length (81.55cm in Novalux and 82.00cm in White Prosperity), number of florets/spike (23.67 in Novalux and 18.33 in White Prosperity), number of spikes/plant (3.67 in Novalux and 3.11 in White Prosperity) and spike yield /ha (295200 in Novalux and 279900 in White Prosperity). The maximum value of yield and yield attributing parameters were found to be higher under the treatment NAA @ 200ppm (T9).