College of Horticulture, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad. Dr. YSR Horticultural University, Venkataramannagudem-534 101, India
*Corresponding author's e-mail: banothusravan@gmail.com
Online published on 22 June, 2015.
A study was undertaken to optimize the stage of harvesting the spikes of gladiolus cultivar White Prosperity for tinting with food dyes. The experiment comprised of two factors of which the first one was eight food dyes with 5% and time of immersion for two hours and the second one was various stages of harvest. In gladiolus cv. White Prosperity, the spikes harvested at stage 1(1–2 basal florets show colour) had a higher vase life of 8.16 days, least wilting percentage of 0, 5.46, and 30.01% on fourth fifth and sixth day respectively. It can be concluded that for tinting the spikes gladiolus cv. White Prosperity, stage 1(1–2 basal florets show colour) was found to be optimum.
Food dyes, Gladiolus, Optimum stage of harvest, Stages of harvest, Tinting
