Effect of Nitrogen Levels and Growing Media on Growth, Flowering and Bulb Production of Lilium Cultivars

To find out the optimum levels of nitrogen, four Lilium cultivars viz., Brunello, Novacento, Romano and Elite were supplied with nitrogen@10, 20, 30 and 40g/m² and grown in two media i.e., natural soil mixed with coco peat and natural soil alone. Among the cultivars tested; Elite was found to produce longest stem (85.13 cm) and the heaviest bulbs (55.14 g) when nitrogen was applied @ 30g/m². The longest bud (7.65cm), bigger flower(18.30cm) and higher number of bulblets (1.83/bulb)were produced by cv. Elite with the application of nitrogen @ 20g/m². The experiment established that cv. Elite produced more number of leaves (37.37/stem) and longest bud (7.60 cm), followed by cv. Novacento (35.78 leaves/stem) grown in mixture of soil and coco peat