SOILLESS CULTURE ON QUALITY PRODUCTION IN LILY

In view of switching from traditional growing on soil to soilless culture in lily, experiments were carried out to investigate the effects of different substrates and plant density on yielding results, intrinsic qualitative parameters of cut flowers and flowering timing.
An open soilless system was adopted where beds, 60 cm wide and 40 cm far from each other, were used.
Expanded clay, perlite and lavic basalt were used as substrate either alone or mixed with peat. 28, 37.5 or 45 bulbs of the Oriental hybrid ‘Star Gazer’ and the Asiatic hybrid ‘Elite’ were planted per square meter.
A pre-culture period of three weeks at 10 °C was adopted, thereafter bulbs were transferred to the greenhouse.
Ninety five percent of plants produced marketable flowers.
Differences on flowers quality were detected.
Substrates led to higher significant differences compared to plant density.
Among substrates, lavic basalt mixed with peat led to higher values of stem length and thickness and fresh weight of cut flowers.
The highest plant density slightly decreased product quality, thus it seems possible to grow a high number of plants per square meter and increase the yield.

VI International Symposium on Protected Cultivation in Mild Winter Climate: Product and Process Innovation

A. Tribulato, G. Noto, S. Argento

Flower bulbs, substrates, plant density, greenhouse, cut flower, flowering parameters.

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2003.614.111