Current Horticulture

An experiment was conducted to enhance flower yield by manipulating planting time of Gerbera (Gerbera Jamesonic Bolus ex Hook.) during 2006–09 at Medziphema, Nagaland, under humid tropical conditions of Nagaland, following eight different dates of planting (15 March-15 October) on Alfisol in a randomised complete block design in open field conditions. The difference in planting time brought a statistically significant difference in performance of cut flowers, primarily due to difference in soil moisture content (153.2 g/kg during May date of planting to 301.6g/kg during August date of planting, coinciding linearly with amount of rainfall received). However, the treatment with June date of planting gave best response in terms of number of leaves at flowering (15.96), leaf area (138.78 cm²) and plant height at flowering (27.09 cm). The June date of planting further gave best response on flowering characteristics, viz., flower size (9.12 cm) and stalk length (35.77 cm). These parameters collectively imparted higher number of flowers (220.1/m²) and flower yield (2.95 kg/m²) with June date of planting compared to number of flowers (179.7–197.4/m²) and flower yield (1.45–2.25 kg/m²) with rest of the other dates of planting. Therefore, an effective benchmark of optimum soil moisture content (201.0 g/kg, i.e. 82.8% of 33 KPa soil moisture) is necessary to harness upon the benefit of suitable planting time in order to raise the performance of Gerbera under rainfed open field conditions.