Evaluation of Genetic Parameters and Cormlet Yield in Gladiolus Offspring

The research aimed to produce new genotypes by hybridization. It was conducted in the Ornamental Plants Research Center of Mahallat from 2016 to 2018. Four varieties of gladiolus including Amsterdam, White Prosperity, Advance Red and Rose Supreme were chosen for hybridization. The progenies were evaluated in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The highest heritability in traits was estimated to be 98.46% for cormlet number and diameter and the lowest was 12.90% for crown diameter. These results indicate that most traits have a very low phenotypic and genetic diversity coefficient, indicating that they had lower environmental effects since the progenies were cultivated under similar and controlled conditions. The results of the factor analysis, based on the eight assessed traits, showed that the four factors accounted for 60.90% of the total variance. The first factor captured 22.80% of the variance and among its traits, crown diameter and leaf number had the highest positive coefficients. The progenies OPRC07 and OPRC09 derived from Red Advance × White Prosperity and Amsterdam × Advance Red had a significant difference with others and had the highest cormlet weight compared to the progenies tested. The progeny OPRC09 was superior to other cormlets in leaf length, leaf width, stem diameter, leaf number, days to germination, and cormlet weight and diameter. Also, the progeny OPRC04 was superior in cormlet production by producing 2.49 cormlets per seed.