A field experiment on the effect of planting dates and pinching on growth, flowering in African marigold cv. SIRAKOLE was carried out during the period between November, 2007 to June, 2008 with four planting dates and three levels of pinching. November planting resulted in more plant spread (north-south, east-west direction), number of leaves, primary and secondary branches per plant. November planting was found beneficial in improving several floral characters like diameter (5.00 cm), number as well as weight of flowers per plot (843.55, 5422.66 g, respectively) and yield of flower per hectare (20083.92 kg). Shoot pinching at 30 days after planting improved plant spread, number of leaves, as well as weight of flowers per plot (3745.95 g) and yield of flowers per hectare (13873.0 kg). Interaction effect of November planting with single pinching was found beneficial in improving flower yield per hectare (21382.96 kg).

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In the study of genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance in gladiolus, wide differences were found in mean performance of genotypes for almost all the characters. Variety Adagio possessed maximum plant height with highest number and width of leaves while Friendship White had the shortest height. Variety Jessica was the earliest in emergence of flower spike, showing colour of basal floret and opening of basal floret. Variety White Prosperity possessed maximum spike length, rachis length and number of florets with highest bloom life. Maximum range of variation was observed for length of spike whereas the minimum was recorded for spike diameter. Characters such as weight of corm exhibited maximum coefficient of variation (GCV and PCV) coupled with high heritability and genetic advance as percentage of mean followed by number of florets per spike, diameter of corm, rachis length and difference between two florets which could be relied upon for effective selection and crop improvement in gladiolus.

A field experiment on the effect of planting dates and pinching on seed production in African marigold cv. Sirakole was carried out during November, 2007 to June, 2008 with four planting dates and three levels of pinching. November planting gave more number of seeds (191.89) and weight of seed per head (0.32g) ,seed yield per plot (272.24 g), 1000 seed weight (1.65g) as well as seed yield (1008.29 kg) per hectare. In addition to these quality traits like germination percentage of seed, root and shoot length of seedlings and vigour index also witnessed significant improvement under this date of planting. Shoot pinching at 30 days after planting was effective in bringing significant improvement in number (173.01) and weight (0.25g) of seeds per head as well as seed yield (309.77 kg) per hectare. Interaction effect of November planting and single pinching improved germination percentage (90.44) and seed vigour index (2098).

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