Impact in the Level of Potassium and Plant Depth on Tuberose’s Vegetative, Blooming, Yield and Quality Characteristics of the Plant

Abstract

Tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa) is a bulbous perennial valued for its fragrant, waxy white flowers used in ornamental and commercial purposes. Proper potassium nutrition and optimal bulb planting depth are critical for promoting healthy growth, early sprouting, and high-quality flowering in tuberose. The study aimed to evaluate the effects of potassium levels and planting depth, and to determine their optimum combination for improving tuberose growth, flowering, yield, and quality. The experiment was conducted at Nagpur using four levels of potassium: Control (0 kg), 150 kg, 200 kg, and 250 kg ha⁻¹, and three planting depths: 5, 7.5, and 10 cm, resulting in twelve treatment combinations. The treatments were arranged in a factorial randomized block design (FRBD). Results indicated that the application of potassium at 200 kg ha⁻¹ and planting depth of 7.5 cm produced superior growth parameters. Minimum days to bulb sprouting (7.40 and 7.75 days), maximum bulb sprouting percentage (99.07 and 98.24%), higher number of shoots per plant (4.89 and 4.44), greater plant height at 150 days after planting (49.11 and 48.00 cm), higher number of leaves per plant at 150 DAP (51.77 and 48.33), and larger leaf area (46.55 and 44.75 cm²) were recorded under these treatments, respectively. And  recorded the less days for initiation of spike (98.22 & 98.08 days), opening of first floret (11.21 & 11.26 days), 50 % flowering (107.78 & 115.days) and first harvesting (113.33 & 114.25 days) of spikes, significantly maximum number of spikes plant -1 (2.16 & 1.86), spikes plot-1(68.98 & 61.91), spikes ha-1(2.39 & 2.23 lakhs), florets spike -1 (26.22 & 25.66), bulbs plant-1(6.08 & 5.48), bulbs plot-1 (194.67 & 175.36), bulbs ha-1(1.99 & 1.80 lakhs), bulblets  plant-1 (31.67 & 24.91),  bulblets plot-1 (1013.33 & 797.33), bulblets ha-1  (35.18 & 27.68 lakhs) and also highest length of spike (77.28 & 74.09 cm), diameter of spike (0.99 & 0.98 cm), length of floret (4.89 & 5.35 cm), diameter of floret (3.91 & 3.84 cm), length of rachis (20.36 & 20.33 cm), diameter of bulb (4.85 & 4.38 cm) and vase life of flower (9.07 & 9.05 days) recorded via applying of potassium 200 kg ha-1 and planting the bulbs at a depth of 7.5 cm respectively at potassium 200 kg ha-1 and planting depth of 7.5 cm. It was discovered that there was no significant interaction between planting depth and potassium's effects on vegetative, blooming, yield and quality characteristics.