Effects of Growing Media and Irrigation Interval on Flower Production of Amaryllis (Amaryllis Belladonna)

Abstract

Four combinations of various growing media i.e. garden soil, canal silt, farm yard manure,  mushroom compost,  leaf mold and  poultry manure and four irrigation intervals (i.e. 5, 10, 15 and 20 days) were  trailed to investigate their effects on growth and flowers production of Amaryllis belladonna, at Horticulture Nursery of University of Agriculture, Peshawar during 2012.Growing medium composed of garden soil, canal silt, and mushroom compost resulted in maximum number of flowers (5.42) per plant, length of flower stalk  (44.00 cm) and flower diameter (11.58 cm). While the medium composed of garden soil, canal silt, and leaf mold resulted in maximum flower persistency (7.58 days) whereas earlier flowering (43.50 days) was observed in amaryllis plants grown in the medium composed of garden soil, canal silt, and farm yard manure. Quick flowering (47.83 days), maximum flowers (4.50) per plant, flower stalk length (44.08 cm), flower diameter (11.67 cm), flower persistency (8.25 days) was noted at irrigation interval of 10 days. Since Mushroom compost growing media and 10 days irrigation interval interaction showed significant result among most of the parameters observed hence for better flower production growing media garden soil + canal silt + mushroom compost with 10 days irrigation interval is recommended.

Keywords: Flower production, flower stalk length & diameter