Resource Book on Horticulture Nursery Management

nutrition for good growth. Irrigation should be stopped prior to harvest to prevent rotting
of corms in the field and to facilitate the cleaning of the new corms.
Removal of flowers spikes improves corms size but many producers allow the first
flower open to observe purity of the stock and allowing rouging of undesired plants.
Corms should be cleaned and dipped in a fungicide solution within two days of digging
to obtain maximum effect of fungicide. The corms produced in warm region are dormant
and require 3-4 months of cold storage (2-4 0 Celsius) to break this dormancy.
Mass Scale Production of Tuberose Bulbs
Tuberose is multiplied through bulbs which are planted from February to May and
bulbs of 1.5 cm and above diameters are selected for planting. The 8-10 bulbs are planted
per meter of row and they are spaced at 30 cm from each other. Row spacing is also
maintained at 30 cm. The bulbs are placed 5 to 8 cm deep over a ridge or in a flat bed.
The bulbs sprout 10-15 days after the planting, depending upon the temperature. Timely
irrigation, weeding and broadcasting of nitrogenous fertilizer is practiced to maintain
good growth. The bulbs are lifted in the month of October and November. The bulbs are
snapped off from the clump and kept in shade for two to three days. The soil is removed
from the bulbs and bulbs are subjected for storage in normal ventilated conditions. The
multiplication of bulbs ranges from 10-15 times the original number.
Mass Scale Production of Gerbera
Gerbera can be propagated by both sexual and asexual methods. Most of the
commercially grown cultivars are propagated through vegetative means, to maintain
uniformity and genetic purity. Among the vegetative means, multiplication through
divisions of clumps is the most common method used for several decades. Gerbera can
also be propagated through cuttings. A tissue culture procedure has been proven to be
commercially practical in gerbera propagation. This method enables a million fold
expansions per year of a desired plant. Micropropagation of gerbera is being used in
many countries from a range of explants. In tissue culture studied so far, plant
regeneration was uniformly achieved with different explants as the source material. Bud
regeneration in Gerbera may represent an effective alternative to the current methods of
micropropagation via axillary branching, provided that the phenotype and flower
production of the regenerates are maintained. Most of the work has been carried on plant
regeneration by adventitious organogenesis from capitulum, shoot tip, leaf, petiole and
other parts of the plant.
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