Article-6 *Corresponding author’s email : tpsingh_62@yahoo.co.in, padamsingh1990@gmail.com Eco. Env. & Cons. 22 (September Suppl.) : 2016; pp. (S27-S32) Copyright@ EM International ISSN 0971–765X Studies on the effect of gladiolus corm orientation on crop parameters – an approach for mechanizing planting operation T. P. Singh 1 *, Padam Singh 2 and Santosh Kumar 3 1 Professor and 2 Ex-PG Student, Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engg, College of Technology; 3 Professor, Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar 263 145, U.S. Nagar (Uttarakhand) (Received 4 May, 2016; accepted 27 June, 2016) ABSTRACT Gladiolus (Gladiolus grandiflorus L.) a member of iridaceae family better known as “queen of the flowers” is one of the popular bulbous ornamental plant and is mainly grown for its spikes. Traditionally gladiolus is planted manually by making furrow lines and placing the corms manually in the furrows at required spacing with apex in vertical position and thereafter covering it with soil. The operation can be mechanized by introducing a suitable planter for large scale cultivation, however, till date no such planter is available for this crop. Proper corm orientation is a bigger challenge with mechanical planting as it can not place the corms in upright position as achievable in manual planting. The experiment conducted with five different corm orientation revealed that corms planted in upright position had early emergence, higher plant height, early spike initiation, early first floret appearance and more spike length compared to the corms planted in other orientation. Key word: Gladiolus, Corms, Planting orientation, Gladiolus planter Introduction India occupies fourth place, in terms of area, for growing ornamental plants with an estimated pro- duction of 1.031 million MT loose and 69027 mil- lions of cut flower from an area of only 0.191 million ha. The average productivity has been reported as 5.4 MT/ha. The production of flowers in Uttarakhand during the year 2010-11 was 2300 MT of loose and 3416 lakhs cut flowers from an area of 1300 ha (Anonymous, 2012). Floriculture export in the year 2011-12 in terms of value was worth Rs 365.3 crore, about 23.4% more compared to year 2010-11, with USA, Germany, Netherland, UK and Japan being the top destinations (Naqvi, 2013). Gladiolus ( Gladiolus grandiflorus L. ) is one of the most popular bulbous ornamental plants grown for its cut flower. The area under bulbous ornamental crop was reported about 3500 ha, with maximum area being under gladiolus, followed by Tuberose in about 800 ha (Deshraj, 2006). In Uttarakhand it is cultivated in about 90 ha with a production and pro- ductivity of 121.89 MT and 1.34 MTha -1 (Arora and Singh, 2002). Planting of gladiolus is considered as one of the most important operations which in- volves factors like correct seed rate, appropriate depth of placement, proper spacing and orientation which has influence over its production. Tradition-