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Variation in different agronomical characters of some carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus) cultivars

Abstract

Human has been always enthusiastic of gardening with flowers and ornamentals since ancient periods of time. The economic importance of ornamentals (floricultural plants) has been increasing and its world-wide international demand has rapidly expanded with the passage of time. Worldwide trends and production centres of floricultural crops are changing continually. A predictable trend in the international flower market is the increased emphasis on quality. Quality factors related to postharvest keeping quality include environmental influences on flower longevity, as well as the influence of pathogenic microorganisms, including virus diseases. As competition in the world market is increasing, quality has become a more important factor. Increasing vase-life or flower-life on a pot plant is an important goal. A large number of floriculture units based on greenhouse technologies for the export of their produce have been set up. These developments had an effect on the flower cultivation in the open field condition and thus significant growth took place in the floriculture sector which is now experiencing a change in terms of technology of production, packaging and storage, varieties and qualities of product, quantum of production and the marketing mechanism. In this recent platform, Caryophyllacean dicot plant member Dianthus caryophyllus (Carnation) is an important, commercial season based floricultural crop. It grows well in temperate climate all over the world and popular as cut-flowers for its variegated petal‟s colour. So, it has terrific market demands in international trading. In this modern era, an agronomic demand of high yielding cultivar of this crop was noticed. Development of cultivars with more desirable floral characteristics and higher productivity are also very important in this crop. Various biometrical/agrometrical characters viz. growth parameters (mature plant height, number and length of shoots and internode, number of tillers, nodes, leaves, stem diameter, length-breadth of leaf etc.), flowering parameters (days to flowering, bud opening, flower development, flower longevity etc.), flower quality parameters (length, girth and diameter, weight of flower, petal number, calyx splitting etc.) and yield parameters (number of flower/plant and seeds/inflorescence, seed weight etc.) were varied greatly from cultivar to cultivar. These parameters serve as key traits for crop improvement programme in which mutation breeding plays a vital stage.

Jagatpati Tah and Anuj Mamgain

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