Jhanji, ShaliniGaur, Kompal2019-11-122019-11-122019http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810135102The present investigation entitled “Influence of corm treatments with benzyl adenine and gibberellic acid on post harvest keeping quality of gladiolus (Gladiolus grandiflorus L.)” was carried out in Research Farms of Floriculture and Landscaping and Laboratories of Botany, Punjab Agricultural University during the year 2018-19. The corms of gladiolus varieties Punjab Glance and Priscilla were dipped for 24 hours in freshly prepared solutions of different concentrations (50 mg l-1, 75 mg l-1, 100 mg l-1 and 125 mg l-1) of benzyl adenine (BA) and gibberellic acid (GA3). The maximum increase in plant height, spike length, leaf area and leaf weight was recorded with 125 mg l-1 GA3 whereas corresponding values were least with 125 mg l-1 BA. The chorophyll content, membrane stability index, relative water content, total soluble sugars and total protein content in leaves and florets of gladiolus increased with increasing concentrations of BA and GA3. The post harvest quality parameters also improved with BA and GA3 treatments as compared to control but GA3 had more pronounced effect than BA. The treatment with 125 mg l-1 GA3 significantly hastened the opening of basal floret, increased floret size, number of florets open at one time, per cent opening of florets, water absorbed and decreased pH that ultimately led to improvement in vase life. The days taken to open basal floret were maximum in BA treatments as compared to all other treatments. Therefore, both BA and GA3 improved vase life but 125 mg l-1 GA3 increased the vase life (15.16) to maximum among all treatments. The treatment of corms with 125 mg l-1 BA resulted in maximum enhancement in production of corms (3.33), cormels (15.83) and spikes per corm (2.83). Thus, 125 mg l-1 GA3 was most efficient in improving vegetative growth and post harvest quality parameters whereas 125 mg l-1 BA was efficient in improving corm and cormel production.ennullThesis