Evaluation of the performance of Four Gladiolus (Gladiolus Hybrida) Cultivars Under Khartoum Conditions

Abstract

This study was initiated at the Experimental Farm belonging to the Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Khartoum to evaluate the performance of four gladiolus cultivars, introduced from Egypt namely, White knight, Golden field, White prosperity and Rose supreme under Khartoum state conditions. The performance of the cultivars was evaluated in terms of vegetative characters (emergence %, days to emergence, number of leaves and leaf length), floral characters (days to flowering, length and fresh weight of inflorescence, inflorescence stalk diameter, number of florets per inflorescence and vase life of inflorescence), and reproductive characters (number and weight of corms and cormels). The cultivars were arranged in randomized complete blocks design with three replications. The results revealed that there were significant differences among the cultivars in most of the characters recorded. The cultivar White knight was superior in the vegetative characters over the other three cultivars. Better floral characters were associated with the cultivars White knight and Golden field than White prosperity and Rose supreme cultivars. The cultivar Rose supreme showed better reproductive characters than the other three cultivars. The overall performance of the cultivars indicated that White knight was the best followed by Golden field, Rose supreme and then White prosperity