Abstract

The study was conducted in the Greenhouse of Horticulture Department, College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, Duhok University, Iraq during spring season of 2019 to investigate the effect of electric current severity and shock timing of corms on the vegetative, flowering and corm growth characters of Gladiolus grandiflorus. The treatments including three levels of electric current severity (AC 6, 8 and 10 amp.) and three timings of electric shock (1, 3 and 5 min) were tested on corms of two cultivars of gladiolus (Bimbo and Sapporo). A special electric apparatus was designed for this purpose. The corms were first soaked for 3 h in 1% NaCl solution, and then soaked in fresh water for the same period of 3 h before planting. The corms of cv. Bimbo which were exposed to low current for a short period treatment (T1) i. e. 4 A × 1 min significantly reduced sprouting time of vegetative growth to 12 days and flowering date to 68 days, increased the number of lateral branches (2.75 lateral branches/plant), largest leaf area (191.35 cm2), chlorophyll content (59.65 SPAD), longest spike flower (12.50 cm), highest number of florets in spike flower (27.85 flowers/spike) and highest dry weight of corms (19.81 g). However, the treatment T15 (6 A × 3 min) significantly increased the plant height (128.95 cm), dry weight of vegetative parts (12.09 g) and diameter of corm (6.13 cm).