Performance of Dendrobium cultivars under shade house

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of different Dendrobium cultivars under shade house at the department of Floriculture and Landscape Architecture, College of Horticulture, Mudigere, during 2019–20. Eleven cultivars of Dendrobium viz. Big Jumbo, Blue Planet, Pink Stripe, Pink Zoo, Hollywood Cherise, Succulent Sonia, Singapore, Udom Red, Burana Jade, Indigo and Sonia-17 were evaluated for various growth, flowering, flower quality and yield traits. Among the cultivars, Big Jumbo had maximum pseudobulb height (35.56 cm), pseudobulb girth (3.44 cm), number of pseudobulbs per plant (6.81), number of leaves per pseudobulb (16.35), length of internode (6.00 cm), leaf length (16.50 cm) and leaf breadth (4.90 cm) as well as the physiological growth parameters viz. leaf area (54.58 cm²) and LAI (4.90 cm). The maximum chlorophyll content in leaf (1.01 mg/g fresh weight) was recorded in cv. Udom Red. The earliest bud initiation (139.64 days) was observed in cv. Hollywood Cherise, while minimum days for bud development (16.16 days) was recorded in cv. Blue Planet. The maximum flowering duration (25.47 days), spike length (32.83 cm), spike girth (7.10 mm), spike weight (20.49 g), number of florets per spike (8.40), length of floret (7.80 cm), floret diameter (7.60 cm), vase life (26.01 days), and number of spikes per plant (7.20) and spikes per square meter (72.00) was observed in cv. Big Jumbo. The studies have conclusively proved that cv. Big Jumbo, Udom Red, Burana and Indigo performed better than other cultivars in the hill zone of Karnataka under shade house conditions.