the effect of micronutrients (b, zn and fe) foliar application on the growth, flowering and corm production of gladiolus (gladiolus grandiflorus l.) in calcareous soils

gladiolus (gladiolus grandiflorus l.) is one of the most widely cultivated, economically important and common flowering plants worldwide including pakistan. however, its yield of flower is quite low when grown under agro-climatic conditions of multan. a field experiment was conducted at the experimental area, department of horticulture, bahauddin zakariya university, multan (pakistan), during 2010-2012 to investigate the effect of micronutrients (b, zn and fe) on growth, flower yield and quality of gladiolus cv. traderhorn. eight treatments comprised of either each micronutrient alone or a combination of fe, b and zn were applied. corms were planted within the first week of november 2010, and 2011 on 60 cm apart ridges with 20 cm distance allowed within rows. twenty corms were planted in each treatment, of three replicates. micronutrient sprays were applied at 30 and 60 days after planting (dap). application of the micronutrients significantly increased plant height, leaf chlorophyll content, flower stalk length, flower fresh weight, spike length, florets per spike, florets’ fresh weight and diameter, flower vase-life, flower diameter as well as fresh weight of corms. leaf number and days to spike emergence were only influenced by a combined application of all the three micronutrients. among the micronutrient treatments, the treatment containing feso4.7h2o, h3bo3 and znso4.7h2o (all at 2% level) performed the best for all the parameters except for number of corm per plant, which was not affected significantly by the foliar application of the micronutrients.