Genetic divergence for certain economic traits of gladiolus (Gladiolus L.)

Abstract

Gladiolus (Gladiolus L.) is one of the most important bulbous ornamental crop, valued for it majestic flower spikes with massive florets of brilliant colours, attractive shapes, varying size and excellent keeping quality. The present study was carried out to assess the genetic divergence among the 62 genotypes of gladiolus and to select the suitable genotypes for further utilization in breeding Programme, which were collected from various sources and were evaluated for vegetative, floral, corm and cormel production traits at three locations in a randomized block design with three replications during kharif 2002-2003 using Multivariate analysis. The three random locations varied from lower valley basin (1685m, a.m.s.1 at 34°N latitude and 74.89°E of longitude) to higher altitude valley basin (2250m, a.m.s.l., 34°N of latitude and 74° E of longitude) of SKUAST-(K).The experimental plot consisted of 2 rows of 4 m length. In each row 28 corms were planted with a spacing of 30 x 15 cm between rows and plants. The biometrical observations were recorded on five randomly selected plants in each replication and data collected were subjected to multivariate analysis utilizing Mahalanobis 02 statistic [1] and genotypes were grouped into different clusters following Tochers method of cluster formation.