Effect of Spacing, Planting Methods and Mulching on Growth and Floral Parameters in Gladiolus (Gladiolus hybridus L) cv. AMERICAN BEAUTY

The experiments was carried out to study the effect of spacing, planting methods and mulching on growth and floral parameters in gladiolus (Gladiolus hybridus L) cv. American Beauty at the Department of Horticulture, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bangalore during both Kharif and Rabi seasons of 2007-08 and 2008-09. The experiments consisted of eight treatments with three replications were carried out by Randomized Complete Block Design. The experiment comprised of single row 30 x 20 cm and 40 x 20 cm with mulching and no mulching and double row 30x 20 x 60 cm and 40 x 20 x 80 cm with mulching and no mulching. The present investigation reveals that, there was an improvement in the growth and floral parameters in gladiolus in 30 x 20 cm spacing with mulched plots treatments. Improved growth, flower yield and corm yield were observed in plastic mulched plots irrespective of different levels of spacing, planting methods adopted.