Abstract
Gladiolus is very popular among ornamental bulbous plants mainly used as cut flower and greatly demanded in the world
floral market. Production of inferior quality spikes is one of the major hurdles for their export. The research was conducted
under Faisalabad conditions to evaluate the use of plant growth regulators in order to improve the vegetative, floral and
physiological attributes. Gladiolus plants were sprayed thrice with different concentrations (0.1, 0.4, 0.7 and 1mM) of
gibberellic acid, benzylaminopurine and salicylic acid at three leaf stage, five leaf stage and slipping stage. Foliar application
of 1mM gibberellic acid increased the plant height (122.14cm), spike length (58.41cm), florets spike-1
(13.49), corm diameter
(4.43cm), corm weight (25.34g) and total cormel weight (20.45g) compared to benzylaminopurine and salicylic acid.
Gibberellic acid at 1mM concentration also increased the total chlorophyll content to 7.72mg/g, total carotenoids (1.61mg/g),
total soluble sugars (3.68mg/g) followed by application of benzylaminopurine. Salicylic acid application at 1mM
concentration decreased the number of days to flower (64.93) compared to 76.12 days in non treated plants.
