Performance of gerbera (Gerbera jamesonii Bolus) cultivars under hydroponics
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Date
2016
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College of Horticulture, Vellanikara
Abstract
Performance of gerbera cultivars under hydroponics was evaluated at the Department of Pomology and Floriculture, College of Horticulture, Kerala Agricultural University, Vellanikkara during 2015-2016. The main objective was to assess the suitability of gerbera cultivars to hydroponic culture and to compare the growth, yield and vase life under hydroponics and pot culture. Five gerbera varieties, viz., Dana Ellen, Goliath, Stanza, Intense and Balance were evaluated under three conditions; hydroponics with media, hydroponics without media and pot culture, under greenhouse. Observations were recorded on vegetative, floral and postharvest characters. Macro and micro nutrients of the plant samples were evaluated after the trial. The varieties exhibited wide variation in both vegetative and floral characters. The plant growth in terms of height and spread was found to be greatly influenced by the variety and the plants of variety Intense were the tallest with more spread at flowering. The growth in terms of plant spread was the least when grown in hydroponic culture without media whereas it was the highest in pot culture. When interaction effect was considered plant spread of the variety Balance in hydroponics was comparable with that of plants in pot culture. The gerbera varieties exhibited wide variation in leaf characters. The Balance recorded highest leaf length, breadth and area (16.24 cm, 7.28 cm, 54.95 cm2, respectively) and Stanza the minimum (11.74 cm, 5.91 cm and 34.10 cm2, respectively). Leaf number was maximum in the variety Stanza (10.40) and petiole length (9.44 cm) in Intense. The growing conditions were also found to have influence on leaf characters, and plants in pot culture recorded the maximum values. Significant positive correlation was observed between light intensity and vegetative characters namely, plant spread, leaf length, leaf area and number of lobes and negative correlation between leaf breadth and petiole length. Gerbera varieties differed in the duration taken for flowering under different growing conditions. Balance was the only variety that flowered under all the three growing conditions. There was considerable variation in the flower characters, viz., stalk length and girth among the varieties. The highest value for flower stalk length (61.30 cm) was in the variety Dana Ellen and for girth (1.90 cm) Goliath and Stanza in pot culture. These two stalk characters were considerably less in plants grown in hydroponic culture with and without media. Significant variation was not observed in the flower and disc diameter among the varieties under different conditions. Maximum number of flowers (17.6) was produced by the variety Balance in pot culture, followed by Goliath (16.8). The variety Balance produced 6.3 and 4.0, flowers, respectively per plant in hydroponic culture with and without media.Varietal differences were not significant with respect to the concentration of macronutrients like N, P, Ca and Mg in the plant, whereas K and S differed. The concentration of K and S was the highest in Balance (2.44 %, 1.37 %, respectively) and the lowest in Dana Ellen (1.69 % and 0.74 %, respectively). Among the growing conditions, hydroponic culture with media was significantly superior to others, with respect to the concentration of K, Mg and S, whereas pot culture significantly enhanced the P and Ca concentration. The variety Balance recorded highest K concentration (3.49 %) the hydroponic culture without media. Variety Dana Ellen had the highest Cu and Mn concentrations (54.55 and 128.72 mg l-1, respectively). The concentration of Cu, Fe, Zn and Mn were the highest (59.37, 263.89, 163.19 and 32.34 mg l-1, respectively) in plants grown in hydroponic culture without media. In overall comparison between gerbera varieties and growing conditions with regard to vegetative characters, plants in pot culture were found to be more vigorous in terms of plant height, spread, number of lobes, leaf characters, viz., length, breadth, leaf area and petiole length. The variety Balance in hydroponics with and without media was comparable with that of pot culture and it was the only variety that flowered under all the growing conditions.
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