Phenotypic and genotypic correlation studies in gladiolus

The results of investigation revealed that spike length, number of florets per spike and floret size are important spike quality characters and the association of various morphological traits through correlation analysis revealed that, spike length had significant positive correlation with plant height, days to emergence of spikes, days to opening of first floret, rachis length, floret size, number of florets per spike and number of florets remain open at a time at phenotypic levels and with plant height and rachis length at genotypic levels. There was significant and positive correlation between number of spikes per corm and all morphological and floral characters studied. Hence, these characters may be considered as selection indices in gladiolus breeding programme.