Ornamental Plants - Gladiolus cultivation practices, uses, variety, soil and climatic requirement, planting, manuring, training and pruning, and disease and insect control

1. Ornamental Plants
- GLADIOLUS
Presented by: Nischal Sapkota PHOTO 04/2021

2. Gladiolus(Gladiolus grandavensis L)
Kingdom: Plantae
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta
Superdivision: Spermatophyta
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Liliopsida
Subclass: Liliidae
Order: Liliiales
Family: Iridaceae
Genus: Gladiolus L.
Species: gandvaensis

3. Short description of Gladiolus
• Is cormous and tender herbaceous annual
(some perennial).
• Word gladiolus is derived from the latin
word ‘Gladilus’ meaning a sword, because
of sword like leaves of this plant.
• It is also known as ‘Sword lily’, ‘Queen
of the bulbous plant’ and ‘Corn flag’ .
• The modern gladiolus offers a diversity
of colors, shapes, and sizes available in
few other flowering plants.

4. Short description of Gladiolus
• Distinctive features of gladiolus are as
follows:
a) Valued for its long attributes of spikes,
where flowers are of various sizes, shapes,
textures and colors.
b) More than 30,000 varieties and 250-300
species, whereas about 200 varieties are
added every year and approximately same no.
of varieties are abandoned d/t degeneration
d/t Fusarium, Botrytis and other viral
disease.
c) Almost all colors of gladiolus are available.

5. Classification of Gladiolus
Gandiflorus
type
Primulinus
type
01
02
PHOTO 04/2021
Pixiola type
03
04 Butterfly type
• Large and exhibition type.
• Cut flower (mostly western)
• Miniature, for pot culture smaller flower, longer lasting cut
flower, bedding type.
• Medium size of flower, attractive blotches and throat marking.

6. Uses
• Is a very popular flower in international cut flower trade.
• Use in bedding, pots, herbaceous border and for cut flowers d/t its
large variety of colorful flowers.
• For cut flowers, primulinus types of gladiolus are better as more
spikes come out from a corm and they can be planted in isolated
borders.
• Grandiflorus and primulinus types look very attractive in mixed
flower borders, but primulinus types are preferred as these do not
need staking so are ideal for preparing flower beds.

7. Varieties of Gladiolus
PHOTO 04/2021
S.N. Varieties Color
1 Friendship Spinal red
2 American Beauty Orange
3 Interprete Bright red
4 White Prosperity White
5 Pacifica White with red blotch in
throat
6 Her Majesty Light blue violet
7 Echo Wonder Liver color with white spot
8 Yellow Frills Yellow

8. Edaphic and Climatic Requirement
A. Soil
• Soil with clay to sandy loam texture.
• Should have adequate water holding capacity
• Soil pH of 6-7.5 is desirable with rich in organic matter.
• Prefers sunny condition throughout its growing period, therefore land
should be south-east facing.

9. Edaphic and Climatic Requirement
B. Temperature
• Successful from elevation of 1000-2750 masl and it can be cultivated
for a single season per year in the high hill region.
• Min. temp. reqd. for growth is 6° C, optimum temp. is 20° C, whereas
temp. range is 10-35° C.
• The base temp. is 2.4° C, i.e. below it there will be no growth
activities in gladiolus.

10. Edaphic and Climatic Requirement
C. Light
• 14 hours of day length is desirable.

11. Planting
A. Time of Planting
• For Mid-hills (1200-2000 masl) is Falgun - Ashoj (Feb. - Sep.)
• For Terai region is Ashoj – Falgun (Sep. – Feb.)

12. Planting
B. Plant materials
a. Seed propagation
b. Corms/ Cormlet (plural Cormels)

13. Planting
A. Plant materials
a. Seed Propagation
• Are mainly used for breeding purposes and they are avoided in
commercial cultivation.
• They take 3-4 years for flowering.

14. Planting
B. Plant materials
b. Corms/ Cormlets
• Asexual method and flowers are produced
from corms more than 2.5cm of diameter.
• Can also be propagated by cormlets of 1-
2.5cm diameter that usually take 18-20
weeks to develop into corms of appropriate
size.

15. Planting
B. Plant materials
b. Corms/ Cormlets
Grades of gladiolus corms
S.N. Category Size (diameter, in cm)
1 Large Jumbo (Big) Greater than 5.1
No. 1 Greater than 3.8 to 5.1
2 Medium No. 2 Greater than 3.2 to 3.8
No. 3 Greater than 2.5 to 3.2
3 Small No. 4 Greater than 1.9 to 2.5
No. 5 Greater than 1.3 to 1.9
No. 6 Greater than 1 to 1.3

16. Planting
B. Plant materials
b. Corms/ Cormlets
• Large and medium grades are used as flowering stock whereas
small grades are used as planting stock.
• Bigger corms take shorter period to bloom.
• Corms have 6-15 buds depending on size but apical bud is
dominant which sprouts to produce the main stem.

17. Planting
C. Planting Dimensions
• 15 x 20cm (row x plant) or 20 x 20cm or 25 x 30cm depending on size
of corms and plant population.
• Plant density of 25 – 30 plants or 40 – 50 corms per sq. m. depending
on variety and other factor.
• Depth of planting is 5-15 cm depending on soil condition and weather
condition.

18. Planting
D. Breaking Dormancy
• 3 months of resting period of the gladiolus corm and cormels d/t growth
inhibitor (morphactin, ABA).
• Corm treated with ethylene or ethylene producing chemicals like ethephon
(etherl) at less than 100ppm is useful to break the dormancy.
• Soaking the corm in water or hot water (55° C) before sowing has earlier
sprouting. Hot water has two main effects, they are; heat influences ethylene
production and the hot water leaches out inhibitors.
• Thiourea and KMNO4 @1000-2000 ppm favors sprouting.
• GA3, NAA (10-50 ppm) favors sprouting but the effect will reverse on higher
concentration dose.

19. Land preparation,Manuring and
Fertilizer Application
• Soil preparation prior to 1 month before of planting.
• Land is prepared by ploughing the field 2-3 times followed by
harrowing and leveling the field.
• Or pits can be formed and mixed with well-rotten FYM @10kg/ sq.m.
at the time of field preparation.
• 50:100:100 kg NPK per or 20g of NPK per sq. m. is used. Urea can
be applied to 2 or 3 split.

20. Intercultural Operations of Gladiolus
B. Weed Control
A. Irrigation
• Done to maintain the moisture condition in the field otherwise
corm sprouting will be delayed.
• Done weekly to 15 days interval depending on soil moisture and
climatic conditions.
• Should be done at regular intervals.
• Weeding is completed within 3 weeks after sowing while the 2nd
weeding is done before application of fertilizer as top dressing.

21. Intercultural Operations
C. Earthing Up
• Done when the soil is heavy and deep planting is not possible.
• Done when the plants are 20-30 cm in height.
D. Staking
• Done to provide the better anchorage to the growing plants especially tall
plants.
• Done after the emergence of spikes but before the opening of florets.
• Plants are loosely fastened at 3 places with the help of jute cord/ rope.
E. Mulching
• Done to prevent moisture loss and suppress the growth of weeds.
• Dry grass can be used for mulching.
• But when attack by termites (white ants) then, it is avoided.

22. Harvesting of Gladiolus
• Generally, gladiolus starts to initiate spikes when the total no. of
leaves is 8.
• Best time to harvest is in the morning since the cells are in fully
turgid which helps for easy cutting of the stem during this period.
• Harvesting done along with 2 leaves using sharp knife or secateurs and
should be immediately placed in cool water.
• Leaves provide substrates for floral metabolism during further post
harvest handling.

23. Post-harvest of Gladiolus
Grading of Spikes
Postharvest handling of Cut Flowers
• 4 treatments is done such as; conditioning or hardening, pulsing or
sugar loading, bud opening and holding(vase) solution.
• Harvest spike precooled at 5-7° C in deionized water for 8 hours to
minimize the losses through transpiration d/t wind.
S.N. Grade Spike length (in cm) No. of florets (minimum)
1 Fancy Greater than 107 16
2 Special Greater than 96-107 15
3 Standard Greater than 81-96 12
4 Utility Less than or equal to 81 10

24. Post-harvest of Gladiolus
Vase life

25. Post-harvest of Gladiolus
Postharvest handling of Cut Flowers
• Pulsing by 20% Sucrose + AgNO3 (1000ppm) for 16-24 hours at 21° C. OR,
20% Sucrose + 50ppm AgNO3, OR, 20% Sucrose + 300ppm Al2(SO4)3.
• Now, after conditioning, the gladiolus can go through bundling, packing,
transportation and into the marketing channel.
Vase life
• Time period between after putting the cut spikes in the vase and up to
when the 1st floret falls.
• 2-12% sucrose + Ethylene Scrubber + Bactericide Compound is used in vase
solution.
• Fluoride (0.25ppm) in water causes blotching of petal and bud may fail
to open.
• Stem end should be dipped at least 0.5 cm in the vase solution.

26. Post-harvest of Gladiolus
Vase life

27. Harvesting of Corms and Cormel
After 45 days of spike harvest the corm and cormels are ready for lifting.
Corms and cormels are geophytes , so special care should be taken while
lifting them from the ground.
Storage of Corms
• Best in wired bottom wooden trays, keeping them in single layer for 100
corms at 2-4.5° C.
• Can be stored in thatch roof house of well ventilated racks at higher
altitude.
• 10-20 days shade drying after treatment of Bavistin 0.2%, and then store
in cold store at 3-4° C for 3 months.

28. Harvesting of Corms and Cormel
Storage of Corms

29. Diseases and their control
B. Fusarium corm rot
A. Botrytis blight
C. Curvularia blight
D. Bacterial leaf and neck rots

30. Diseases and their control
A. Botrytis blight
caused by Botrytis gladiolorum.
Damages both leaves and flowers.
Control measures:
Spray maneb (with zinc) and benomyl.
Causes rot in storage.
Symptoms include deformed, blind plants, and floret
disfigurement..
Control measures:
hot water treatment of cormels, fungicide dips of corms and
soil fumigation.
B. Fusarium corm rot

31. Diseases and their control
C. Curvularia blight
caused by Curvularia trifolii f.species gladioli.
Damages young leaves,flowers and cormels.
Control measures:
Spray maneb and chlorothlonil.
caused by Xanthamonas gummisudans.
Symptoms include yellow-brown tissue about the corm with a sharp,
moldy odor. Black sclerotia are usually visible between the leaf
base.
Control measures:
hot water treatment of cormels, fungicide dips of corms and soil
fumigation.
Infested soil should be avoided during cool season.
D. Bacterial leaf and neck rots

32. Insects and their control
C. Loopers (Larvae/ Worms)
A. Aphids
B. Thrips
D. Nematodes

33. Insects and their control
A. Aphids (Macrosiphum gossypii)
suck the sap fom foliage and flowers and transmit virus
pathogens.
Control measures:
Spray Dimethoate, Malathion and Endosulfan at recommended dose.
cause scars on florets.
Control measures:
Spray Diazinon, Monocrotophos, or Acephate in conjunction with proper
weed management practices.
B. Thrips (Taeniothrips simplex)

34. Insects and their control
C. Loopers(Larvae/ Worms)
Loopers are basically larvae/ worms that make loops while moving.
Some loopers are; Tichoplusia ni, also k/a Armyworms; Spodoptera
frugiperda, also k/a Cut worms; and Feltia subterranean.
Control measures:
larval stages can be controlled by spray of Bacillus thruingensis
(a bacterial pathogen of lepidoptera larvae).
spray Monocrotophos and Trichlorfon at recommended dose.
cause root knots.
Control measures:
Hot water treatment of corms and cormels and by soil fumigation.
Deep summer ploughing and soil solarization.
D. Nematodes (Meloidogyne sp.)

35. PHOTO 04/2021
“ When a flower
doesn't bloom you
fix the environment
in which it grows,
not the flower.
- Alexander Den Heijer