Growth, flowering and corm production of gladiolus cv. Friendship as influenced by foliar application of nutrients and growth regulators

The present investigations were carried out to know the effect of urea (1.0 and 1.5%), zinc sulphate (0.4 and 0.6%), GA₃ (50 and 100 ppm) and NAA (50 and 100 ppm) on growth, flowering and corm production of gladiolus cv. Friendship. In this study GA₃ (100 ppm) and zinc sulphate (0.6%) were found most effective for enhancing vegetative growth, spike length, number and size of florets, flowering duration and number of spikes. However, the production as well as the size and weight of corms were significantly improved by NAA (100 ppm). The different chemicals failed to exert any significant effect on number of leaves per plant, number of days taken for spike emergence and size of cormels.