author(s)
Ravi Saini, Kamal Kishor Nagar, RK Bansal, Deepika Sharma, Aishwarya Sharma, Mukesh Yadav and Manoj Kumar Jangid

abstract
A field experiment was carried out during the Rabi season of 2024-25 at the Crop Research Farm, School of Agricultural Sciences, Jaipur National University, Jaipur (Rajasthan), on sandy loam soil. The experiment was structured in a Factorial Randomized Block Design (FRBD) with three replications, comprising 15 treatment combinations. The treatments included three planting dates: D₁ (15th October), D₂ (30th October), and D₃ (14th November), and five gladiolus varieties: V₁ (Atom Hardy Gladiolus), V₂ (Fidelio), V₃ (Robinetta), V₄ (White Prosperity), and V₅ (Nova Lax). The results demonstrated that the combination D₁V₅ (15th October + Nova Lax) significantly outperformed all other treatment combinations in terms of growth, flowering, and flower yield parameters. This treatment recorded the earliest sprouting (13.95 days), tallest plants (81.96 cm), highest, number of leaves per plant (9.93), longest leaves (45.37 cm), widest leaves (3.79 cm), maximum stem diameter (1.16 cm), highest number of spikes per plant (1.29) and highest spike production per hectare (2.39 lakh). These findings indicate that planting Gladiolus cv. Nova Lax on 15th October is the most suitable option for achieving superior growth and flower yield under the semi-arid agro-climatic conditions of Rajasthan.