Pre-Plant Soaking of Corms in Growth Regulators Influences the Multiple Sprouting, Floral and Corm Associated Traits in Gladiolus grandiflorus L

Gladiolus is an ornamental bulbous plant and is commercially propagated in the world through its corms. Usually, a single bud is sprouted from a mother corm but sprouting of multiple buds favors an increase in production of propagules. Thus, present research work was carried out to enhance the sprouting of multiple buds and evaluate its effects on other growth parameters through pre-plant soaking of corms in solution of plant growth regulators. The corms were soaked in solutions of gibberellic acid (GA3), benzyladenine (BA) or ethrel at 0, 50, 100 or 150 ppm concentrations for 24 hrs before planting in the field. Gibberellic acid at 100ppm concentration increased plant height to 105 cm compared to 97.60 cm in control plants, flowering percentage (84.67%), spike length (40.03 cm) and also boosted the corm weight (68.30 g). Soaking of corms in 150 ppm benzyladenine solution enhanced the number of sprouting per corm (2.14) and reduced the plant height (87.00 cm) while 50 ppm concentration of ethrel increased the spike length (42.14 cm). In conclusion, soaking of corms in benzyladenine favored the modifications in various traits of interest including sprouting of multiple buds and an increase in the production of corms while gibberellic acid improved the floral characteristics of gladiolus spikes.