Vol. 10, Issue 9 (2021)

Author(s):
Raiz Ahmed Lone, Imtiyaz Tahir Nazki, Gazanfar Gani and Nazir A Ganai

Abstract:
Flower production of Alstroemeria hybrida (L.) cvs. Pluto and Alladin were evaluated to determine response to the different planting density and by thinning of vegetative shoots by pulling. The experiment comprised of two spacing (30 × 45 cm and 60 × 45 cm), three levels of thinning (0%, 25% and 50%) and two cvs. Pluto and Alladin constituting 12 treatment combinations replicated thrice in Split Plot Design under protected conditions. Wider spacing significantly improved vegetative and flowering characteristics. Cultivar Pluto and Alladin show significant difference in all the flowering parameters. Pluto was found to be better with days to flower bud formation (164.51), number of florets (2.88), duration of flowering flush (67.99 days), total number of flowering shoots (39.55), percent class-I flowering stems (87.49) and length of cymes of class-I flowering stems (19.90cm) while Alladin was ahead in number of cymes/inflorescence (4.41), diameter of primary floret (5.60cm), diameter of flowering shoot (9.33mm) and number of nodes on generative shoots (26.01). Interactive effect of spacing, variety and thinning indicates that with spacing of 60 × 45 cm and 25% thinning in cv. Pluto resulted in minimum days to flower bud formation (161.11), maximum number of florets/cyme (3.77), duration of flowering flush (71.40 days), number of flowering shoots (47.33) and percent class-I flowering stems (92.66) whereas maximum number of cymes/inflorescence (5.33), diameter of primary floret (5.83mm), diameter of flowering shoot (9.51mm) and number of nodes on generative shoots (28.77) was observed with spacing of 60 × 45 cm and 25% thinning in cv. Alladin.