EFFECT OF POT SIZE AND CULTIVARS ON GROWTH, FLOWERING AND PRESENTABILITY OF POTTED AZALEAS
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Date
2014
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ABSTRACT
The present investigation entitled, “Effect of pot size and cultivars on growth, flowering and
presentability of potted azaleas” was carried out at the experimental farm of the department of
Floriculture and Landscaping of Dr. Yashwant Singh Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni,
Solan (H.P) during 2012-13 to find out the most suitable cultivars and pot size for producing the best quality
and most presentable potted azaleas. The experiment was laid out in completely randomized design
(factorial) having 45 treatment combinations of fifteen cultivars and three pot sizes replicated thrice
with five pots per treatment. Fifteen cultivars viz., ‘John Herrens’, ‘Winter Hawk’, ‘White Rosebud’,
‘Boy-O-Boy’, ‘Summer Time’, ‘Pink Tama’, ‘Red Tomahawk’, ‘Shanghai Baby’, ‘Super Red’,
‘Nightingale’, ‘Empress’, ‘White Bouquet’, ‘Lady Love’, ‘Anniversary Joy’ and ‘Royalty’ and three
pot sizes i.e. 25 cm, 20 cm and 15 cm diameter pots, respectively were tested. The observations were
recorded on plant height (cm), number of shoots per plant, shoot length (cm), plant spread (cm), days
for flower bud formation (days), number of days taken for flowering (days), number of flowers per
plant, flower diameter (cm), number of flowers per plant open at a time, duration of flowering (days)
and pot presentability.
The cv. ‘White Bouquet’ recorded maximum values in terms of most of desirable characters
viz., number of shoots per plant (13.76), plant spread (26.41 cm), number of flowers per plant (25.89),
number of flowers per plant open at a time (17.84), duration of flowering (32.23 days) and pot
presentability score (83.22). However, the maximum values for the characters like plant height (48.78
cm) and shoot length (12.00 cm) were recorded in cv. ‘Royalty’ and cv. ‘Empress’ took maximum
number of days for flower bud formation (341.07 days) as well as for flowering (371.02 days) while
cv. ‘Pink Tama’ produced largest size flowers (10.44 cm). As regards the effect of pot sizes, 25 cm
diameter pots exhibited maximum plant height (30.30 cm), maximum shoots per plant (9.80), shoot
length (9.74 cm), plant spread (24.56 cm), days for flower bud formation (215.80 days), days taken
for flowering (249.29 days), number of flowers per plant (16.54), flower diameter (6.82 cm), number
of flowers open at a time (11.57), duration of flowering (25.68 days) and pot presentability score
(73.69). The study indicated that cv. ‘White Bouquet’ gave better performance w.r.t. various growth,
flowering and presentability attributes of potted azaleas especially when grown in 25 cm diameter
pots.