Performance of Gladiolus as influenced by boron and zinc.

The field study of B and Zn on Gladiolus was conducted at Floriculture Farm of HRC, Gazipur and RARS, Jessore during 2005-2006. The objective was to evaluate the response of B and Zn and to find out the optimum dose of the same for production of gladiolus. It appeared in studied data reveals that B and Zn made promising response to the growth and floral characters of gladiolus. It was also noticed in the tables that B and Zn both either in single or in combination exerted tremendous effect on the yield and quality of gladiolus. However, with subsequent addition of higher rates of B and Zn progressively increased the selective growth and flower characters to some extent and beyond the further increment of the dosage declined the results noticeably. It is also reported that gladiolus is highly responsive to chemical fertilizers. The sixteen treatment combinations included in the study noted that B and Zn at the rate of B2.0 Zn4.5 kg ha(-1). along with blanket dose of N375 P150 K250 S20 kg and CD 5 t ha(-1) exhibited the best performance in flower production and stretched the vase life of flower. The studied parameters like plant height (79.83 and 87.61 cm), length of spike (71.2 and 67.33 cm) length of rachis (48.86 and 45.08 cm) and leaves number (10.77 and 9.87/plant) significantly responded to the combined application of boron and zinc at the rate of B2.0 Zn4.54 as compared to other treatment combinations. Floral characters like floret number (12.85 and 12.45/spike), floret size (9.76x8.93 and 10.28x9.77 cm) and weight of stick (36.73 and 45.12 g) also significantly influenced by said treatment (B2.0 Zn4.5 kg ha(-1)) which was markedly differed over rest of treatments combination. Similar trend was noticed as well in single application of B and Zn with increase rates.