Vida de vaso de hastes florais de gladíolo e produção de bulbos

Abstract

The gladiolus is popularly called Palma de Santa Rita. It is an ornamental flower, propagated by bulbs and used to decorate gardens and interiors and is sold on commemorative dates, and can become an alternative source of income for rural producers. Given this, the objective of this work was to evaluate the vase life of the floral stems of four gladiolus cultivars in different types of water management in the vases, aiming at the durability of the flowers in a home, and to estimate the quality of the bulbs produced. The experiments were carried out at the Federal University of Fronteira Sul (UFFS), Erechim campus, where four gladiolus cultivars were evaluated: Priscila, Gold Field, Trader Horn and White Goddess. The first phase of the experiment aimed to obtain floral stems for subsequent laboratory evaluation of the vase lifespan with three types of management: (1) without changing the water in the vase, (2) with changing the water in the vase every 3 days and, (3) changing the water in the vase every three days, plus a 1 cm bevel cut at the base of the stem. At this stage, the total number of florets and open flowers, the length of the stem (days), flower quality score and flower longevity score were evaluated, both assigned on the 5th, 7th and 10th day. The second phase of the experiment aimed to evaluate bulb production, in terms of the number of bulbs produced, weight (g), perimeter (cm) and height (mm), for which the plants were kept in the field after harvesting the floral stems. It was observed from this evaluation that the flower opening interval is, in most cases, one day (data not shown). The longest duration of the floral stem of the Gold Field, White Goddess and Tradehorn cultivars was observed when the water in the vase was changed every three days (16, 15 and 13 days, respectively) (Table 4). For the cultivars Gold Field and White Goddess, changing the water in the vase and subsequently cutting the base of the stem also showed good results in terms of duration (15 and 14 days, respectively), not statistically different from the management with just changing water every three days. This result demonstrates that management interferes in the grade evaluation periods, being different for each gladiolus cultivar. The Tradehorn cultivar presented scores of 3 (poor) in all three managements; This denotes a lower durability of the stem of this cultivar. The cultivars that stand out in terms of flower stem length are Gold Field and Trade Horn and in terms of bulb production potential they are Priscila and Trade Horn.