LAUSR

Gladiolus is commercially grown through corms and freshly harvested gladiolus corms exhibit endo dormancy for 2-4 months or even more depending on cultivars. It creates hindrance in round the year cultivation of these corm. The present research aimed to break the dormancy of gladiolus corms in relatively short time through the application of plant growth regulators under field conditions and to observe the certain biochemical changes occurred in treated and control corm. Freshly harvested corms of two gladiolus cultivars, white prosperity and amsterdam, were descaled and soaked in 0.5 and 1mM solution of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) for 10 hours followed by soaking in 0.1, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.8 mM solution of gibberellic acid (GA3) for 15 hours before planting on ridges in the field. The control corms were soaked in distilled water. Treatment (GA3 at 0.8 mM in combination with 1 mM BAP) showed maximum germination percentage (80 % and 86.66 %) and more no. of bud corm (6.52 and 6.59) in white prosperity and Amsterdam, respectively. This treatment also showed positive changes in biochemical attributes including total soluble sugars (6.89 mg/g and 7.06 mg/g), abscisic acid (30.40 ng/g and 28.58 ng/g), gibberellic acid (105.63 ng/g and 119.97 ng/g) in treated corms (1mM BAP followed by 0.8mM GA3) in white prosperity and amsterdam compared to control corms (2.26 mg/g and 2.90 mg/g TSS, 64.29 ng/g and 59.90 ng/g ABA, 25.08 ng/g and 32.63 ng/g GA3), respectively. Application of BAP and GA3 was useful to reduce the dormant period of corms of two cultivars including Amsterdam and White prosperity.