Performance evaluation of lisianthus [Eustoma grandiflorum (Raf.) Shinn.] cultivars as an emerging cut flower under Nilgiri conditions

An evaluation study was undertaken with twelve double flowered lisianthus cultivars for yield, yield contributing traits as well as quality traits, to identify the suitable type pertaining to cut flower for Nilgiri conditions. All the cultivars showed greater variation for the above mentioned traits and among them, the cultivar ‘Echo Pink’ was found to be the best for the traits plant height (93.43 cm), stem length (91.68 cm), internodal length (8.49 cm), shoot yield plant^-1 (5.27). The cultivar ‘Blue Picotee’ was also an excellent performer next to ‘Echo Pink’ with respect to cut flower qualities. The performance of the cultivar ‘Bolero White’ was better with shorter duration for bud initiation (107.33 days), first flowering (142.67 days) and longer vase life (22 days). With respect to flowering traits, ‘Minuet Dark Purple’ performed better with maximum number of buds stem^-1 (60.31), number of flowers stem^-1 (17.09) and bud diameter (5.75 cm) which bestowed a mass effect. ‘Art Marine’ registered the highest bud length (4.50 cm), flower diameter (8.30 cm) and flower length (6.67 cm).