Evaluation of vegetative, flowering and bulb parameters of different tuberose cultivars for pot culture

Introduction

Tuberose (Agave amica) is an important commercial floricultural crop valued for its fragrant flowers, which are widely used for loose flowers, cut flowers, garlands, floral decorations and essential oil extraction. It belongs to the family Asparagaceae and is native to Mexico. Based on floral morphology, tuberose cultivars are classified into single, semi-double and double types. Tuberose is extensively cultivated in India, including Chhattisgarh, where favourable climatic conditions and increasing market demand have promoted its commercial cultivation. The crop performs well under warm conditions (20-35°C), open sunlight and well-drained fertile soils. However, extreme temperatures may adversely affect flowering and flower quality. With increasing urbanization and limited space, pot culture and container gardening are gaining popularity. Tuberose has good potential as a potted ornamental crop due to its attractive foliage and fragrant flowers. Cultivar suitability for pot culture depends on traits such as compact growth, plant height, spike length, flowering duration, flower quality and bulb multiplication. Therefore, evaluation of different cultivars is essential to identify suitable genotypes for ornamental pot production under local conditions.

Materials and Methods

The present investigation was conducted at the Horticultural Nursery, Horticultural Research cum Instructional Farm, College of Agriculture, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, five pots per treatment, making a total of 120 pots. Healthy and uniform-sized tuberose bulbs measuring 2.5-3.0 cm in diameter were used as planting material. Before planting, the bulbs were treated with 0.1 per cent Bavistin solution for 30 minutes and shade dried. The bulbs were planted in pots during July at a depth of 5-6 cm in growing media consisting of soil, sand and farmyard manure in a 1:1:1 ratio. Recommended nutrient management was followed using urea, DAP and MOP, along with water-soluble NPK (19:19:19) and cow dung slurry. Irrigation, weeding, soil loosening and plant protection measures were carried out as and when required. Observations were recorded on vegetative, flowering and bulb characters. The data recorded on different characters were subjected to statistical analysis using the procedure suggested by Panse and Sukhatme for Randomized Block Design. The treatment means were compared using the critical difference at the 5 per cent level of significance.

Result and Discussion

Data on different growth, flowering and bulb parameters of tuberose cultivars were recorded under pot culture conditions and are presented and discussed in this section.

Growth parameters

The data presented in Table 1 clearly indicated that significant variation was observed among different tuberose cultivars with respect to plant height at 90 days after planting. The cultivar Sahayadri Vaman recorded minimum plant height (36.21 cm), which was statistically at par with Pratap Rajani (40.02 cm), BRH-18 (41.54 cm) and GKTC-4 (42.71 cm), while the maximum plant height was recorded in BRH-17 (50.50 cm). The shorter plant height of Sahayadri Vaman is a desirable characteristic for pot culture as it provides a compact plant architecture. The number of leaves per plant also varied significantly among the cultivars. The maximum number of leaves per plant was recorded in BRH-24 (47.80), which was significantly superior over the other cultivars, whereas the minimum number of leaves was recorded in GKTC-4 (22.66). The variation in Plant height and leaf production may be mainly due to differences in the genetic constitution of individual cultivars, which influence vegetative growth and development. Environmental conditions and nutrient availability may also affect leaf production by influencing physiological processes such as photosynthesis and nutrient uptake. Similar variation in the number of leaves per plant among tuberose cultivars was also reported by Patil et al. (2009) [11] , Mahawer et al. (2013) [10] , Ranchana et al. (2013) [13] , Prashanta et al. (2016) [12] , Singh et al. (2017) [17] ., Chaudhary et al. (2018) [2] , Chormale (2019) [3] , Kamei and Singh (2019) [7] , Chorm ale (2019), Suralkar et al. (2022) [18] , Kispotta and Tamrakar (2024) [8,19] . and Tamrakar and Sunar (2025) [20] in tuberose. (2013) [10] , Kumar et al. (2019), Jadhav et al. (2020) [6] , Das et al. (2022) [4] , Rajput et al. (2022) [14] , Harshavardhan et al. (2023) [5] . and Singh et al. (2023) [15] . [15] . in tuberose. [1] , Prashanta et al. (2016) [12] , Patil et al. (2018), Mahawer et al. (2013) [10] . and Harshvardhan et al. (2023).

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