Performance of Heliconia genotypes for vegetative and flowering traits under shadehouse condition

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at Hi-tech Horticulture, Seed Unit, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad during 2015-17 to evaluate the performance of Heliconia genotypes under shadehouse condition. Sixteen genotypes studied were found significant difference for most of the characters. Among the genotypes, maximum plant height (340.38 cm), plant spread, (328.37 cm), leaf area (4699.40 cm2), length of spike (57.10 cm) and number of florets per bract (13.92) were found in H. collinsiana 'Pendula' whereas, number of suckers (66.40) were higher in H. psittacorum x H. spathocircinata 'Golden Torch' and comparatively more number of leaves were noticed in the genotype H. stricta 'Iris Bannochie' (7.89). The genotype H. latispatha 'Orange' was earlier to show its first flower by taking 110.88 days with increased number of spikes per clump (43.89). Stalk length was recorded more in H. psittacorum x H. spathocircinata 'Alan Carle' (83.31 cm) and maximum number of bracts per spike (11.63) were recorded in the genotype H. chartacea x H. bihai 'Lobster Claw-II'.