Influence of Growth Retardants on Flowering of Potted Alstroemeria (Alstroemeria hybrida L.)

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the influence of different concentrations of Alar (Diaminozide) and Ethephon (Ethrel) as spray applications on two cultivars of pot grown Alstroemeria to study their effect on different flowering parameters under shaded conditions during two successive flushes in the year 2016 – 2017 at the Research farm of Division of Floriculture and Landscape Architecture, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, Shalimar Campus Srinagar. Fourteen different treatments with two cultivars (Pluto, New Pink) were used with four concentrations of Alar (0, 500, 1000 and 1500ppm) and Ethephon (0, 1000, 1500, 2000 ppm) were replicated thrice in a Completely Randomized Design. The investigation revealed that with application of Alar at 1500 ppm maximum days to flower bud formation, number of cymes/inflorescence, number of florets/cyme, diameter of primary floret, diameter of flowering shoots, number of nodes on generative shoots, duration of flowering and pot present ability was observed in both cultivars in successive flushes followed by Ethephon 2000 ppm and Alar at 1000ppm.