Performance of winter annual flowering species as affected by different modes of saline and canal water irrigation

摘要

Most of the flowering plant species raised for flowers, especially winter annuals, are highly delicate in the sense that these demand intensive care in terms of protection from water and other stresses. That is why these are usually raised on highlyfertile soils and under assured water supply. Many progressive farmers adjoining the mega-cities have started diversifying their agriculture by undertaking the cultivation of flowers on a large scale (Mishra, 5; Chadha, 1). The farmers even in arid regions are showing interest in this business where damages incurred due to diseases and pests are considerably reduced as a consequence of drier weather conditions. Nevertheless, these areas face scarcity in terms of available groundwater resources, majority of which are even saline and the plants placed under such climate are subjected to high evaporative demand. The efforts towards utilization of saline water mainly aimed at enhancing the production of annual crops and high value fruit trees is considered to be less attractive (Minhas et al., 4). The aims of various irrigation strategies devised for the purpose are usually to control salinity within the threshold limits of plants either through the conjunctive use of saline and canal waters or by avoiding salt stress at critical period of their growth (Minhas and Gupta, 3). However, along with suitable irrigation management, viable flower producing enterprise would demand for species those are not only tolerant to salinity and drought stresses but alsoare well adapted to the local agro-climate. But there is limited information on the salt tolerance of flowering species under the field situations (Maas, 2) Therefore, performance of 10 winter annual flowering/ornamental species native to semi-arid regions was evaluated.