Effect of Some Fertilizer Treatments on the Growth of Cormels of Gladiolus and Corms Production

Abstract

The present experiment was performed throughout two successive seasons of 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 at the nursery of Horticulture Research Institute, Agriculture Research Center, Giza, Egypt to investigate the effects of different concentrations of some fertilizer treatments alone or with some combinations between them on the vegetative growth, corms production and some chemical constituents of gladioli cormels. The used plant was Gladiolus grandiflorus cv."Rose Supreme" for its popularity in Cairo and Alexandria flower trade. The cormels of the used cultivar were planted in 25 cm. plastic pots filled with an equal mixture of sand and agricultural soil. After one month from planting the fertilizer treatments were started as a soil drench at 333.3 ml/plant and repeated five times at 15 days' interval. The fertilizer treatments were kristalon at 2 g/l, actosol at 2.5 ml/l or 5 ml/l and yeast extract at 5 or 10 g/l alone or with some combinations between them (13 treatments) . The experiment layout was designed to provide complete randomized blocks containing three replicates, each replicate had 13 different treatments and four cormels were used for each treatment in each replicate(plot).Results revealed that using yeast extract at 10 g/l combined with kristalon at 2g/l gave the highest significant increases of plant height, leaves number and the content of the produced corms of phosphorus, potassium and total carbohydrates, compared with the control treatment. While using yeast extract at 10 g/l combined with actosol at 2.5 ml/l achieved the largest circumference of the produced corms (grade number), corms dry weight and the number of cormels/plant, compared with the control treatment.Besides, using yeast extract at 5g/l combined with actosol (2.5 or 5.0 ml/l) gave the highest corms fresh weight, and leaves total carotenoids content, compared with the control treatment. Furthermore, using actosol alone (2.5 or 5.0 ml/l) gave the highest significant values of chlorophyll (a + b) in the leaves, nitrogen in the corms and cormels fresh weight, compared with the control treatment.From the aforementioned results it can be generally recommended to fertilize Gladiolus grandiflorus cv." Rose Supreme" cormels with yeast extract at 5 to 10 g/l (8.35 to 16.66 g/plant/season) combined with actosol at 2.5 to 5 ml/l (4.15 to 8.35 ml/plant/season) at 333.3 ml/plant/time five times to obtain corms with high quality.