Influence of various doses of iron on flowering and post-harvest characters in gladiolus cv. Malaviya Shatabdi

Abstract

The current study was carried out at the Horticulture Research Farm, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, during the year 2023-2024. The experiment was laid in a Randomized Block Design with 3 replications of 11 treatments applied to gladiolus plants. These treatments included various concentrations of FeSO4 such as control (distilled water), 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3%, 0.4%, 0.5%, 0.6%, 0.7%, 0.8%, 0.9%, and 1.0%. Iron was applied as foliar spray at the 3rd and 6th leaf stages. In terms of flowering characters, FeSO4 0.4% showed the best results for the number of days to spike emergence (68.65 days), the opening of 1st (86.58 days), 3rd (89.85 days), 5th (92.29 days), and last florets (98.02 days), as well as the diameter of 1st (7.76 cm), 3rd (7.38 cm) and 5th (7.47 cm) florets. In terms of post-harvest characters, FeSO4 0.4% showed best result for flowering duration of 1st (5.62 days), 3rd (5.38 days), 5th (5.41 days) and last florets (5.07 days), length of 1st (9.62 cm), 3rd (8.98 cm) and 5th (9.27 cm) florets, no. of florets/spike (12.21), no. of opened florets/spike (9.26), no. of opened florets at a time (4.97) and vase life (9.05 days) whereas, FeSO4 0.5% showed best results for weight of spike at 1st (36.65 g), 3rd (39.39 g) and 6th (35.53 g) day but FeSO4 0.4% on 9th (32.8 g) day. FeSO4 0.4% influenced water uptake by spike at 3rd (17.17 ml), 6th (39.00 ml) and 9th (44.33 ml) day.