Staggered Planting in Gladiolus: An Innovative Approach for Optimizing Cut Flower Production

Abstract

Gladiolus (Gladiolus sp.) the ‘Queen of bulbous flowers’ also known as ‘Sword lily’ is native to South Africa, belong to the family Iridaceae, a popular and high-demand flower, holds immense potential for commercial cut flower production. However, maximizing its production efficiency and meeting market demands remain key challenges. This research paper aims to investigate the favourable month(s) and effectiveness of gladiolus staggered planting as an innovative cultivation technique for enhancing cut flower production. The field experiment was laid out in RBD with 12 treatments and three replications. The findings from this research observed that gladiolus can be successfully cultivated in staggered planting ensuring continuous supply to market demands. Commercial cultivation to supply gladiolus flower demand during off-season in other regions of the country can be profitable venture. It can be concluded that October planting (T10) is most preferred as characters like length of spikes (79.73 cm), length of rachis (42.57 cm), number of florets per spike (14.80), diameter of floret (10.23 cm), flowering duration (15.07 days) and vase life (13.83 days) were observed to be maximum amongst the treatment.  Similarly, September planting (T9) can also be successfully cultivated as many of the observations were significantly at par with October planting. February planting (T2) may also be taken with compromised on vase life. However, June planting (T6) should be avoided for profitable cultivation. The findings can be particularly useful for commercial exploration of gladiolus as emerging cut flower in the northeast region of the country.