Effect of Sources of Nutrients, Corm Priming with Coconut Water and Eco-friendly Floral Preservatives on Postharvest Quality of Gladiolus (Gladiolus hybridus Hort) cv. Pusa Chandni

The impact of nutrition sources in Gladiolus cv. Pusa Chandni: a field trial experiment using randomized block design was used to study growth and flowering parameters. A total of seven treatments containing control, RDF and corm priming and foliar application of coconut water were taken for study. Among the treatments, treatment T5-75% RDF + corm priming with 50% coconut water for 12 hrs + two sprays of 25% coconut water on plants at 15-day and 30-day stages resulted in maximum plant height (63.25±3.16 a), leaf width (2.65±0.05 a), number of spikes/plant (1.34±0.05 a), number of flowers/spike (14.20±0.70 a) and spike length (64.85±0.73 a), while these parameters were at a minimum in the control. In regards to the postharvest characteristics of gladiolus flowers, a total of five treatments containing distilled water, coconut water, and sucrose were studied and the treatment containing 50% coconut water + 50 % distilled water + 2% sucrose had the maximum vase life (10.67±0.15 a), florets opening % (81.33±0.12 a), maximum florets open at one time (5.33 ± 0.12 a) and minimum physiological weight loss % (18.68±0.03 e ), while spikes were held in holding solution T3-75% coconut water + 25% distilled water. 4% sucrose showed the maximum size of the floret (9.28±0.16 a).