Effect of NPK through drip fertigation on vegetative growth and flowering attributes of gladiolus cv. White prosperity under tarai conditions of Uttarakhand

Excessive use of fertilizer and water has become a serious problem these days and the judicious use of fertilizer and water is now becoming the need of the hour. Fertigation is an effective method which allows the use of fertilizers along with water judiciously which in turn helps to minimize the excessive use of fertilizers as well as wastage of water. Therefore, the current investigation was conducted to analyse the role of fertigation at Model Floriculture Centre, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India. Experiment was laid out in randomized block design (RBD) with five treatments having four replications to study the effect of NPK through drip fertigation on vegetative growth and flowering attributes of Gladiolus cv. White Prosperity under tarai region of Uttarakhand. Application of 225:150:150 kg NPK/ha in 3 equal split 33.3:33.3:33.3% at each vegetative, heading and flowering stage, showed maximum enhancement in floral characters namely spike length, rachis length, diameter of floret, number of florets open at a time and total number of florets per spike. On the other hand, application of 300:200:200 kg NPK/ha in 3 equal split 33.3:33.3:33.3% at each vegetative, heading and flowering stage, produced highest quality corms and cormels with enhancement in attributes namely diameter of corms, weight of corms, number of cormels and weight of cormels. On the basis of present findings, it can be concluded that the choice of fertigation dosage would depend on the demand of gladiolus spikes or corms in the market.