Planting Time Affects Vegetative and Reproductive Growth of Various Cultivars of Snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus)

To check field performance of exotic cultivars of Snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus L.) at various times of planting, seeds of twenty four cultivars of Snapdragon were imported from United States of America (USA), PanAmerica Seeds, Chicago, IL, and were sown at three times of sowing (10 November 2009, 10 March 2010, and 10 October 2010). Studies were carried out at University College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Punjab-Pakistan. The data regarding different vegetative parameters (number of leaves per plant, number of nodes per plant, number of secondary branches per plant, plant height, fresh weight per plant, and dry weight per plant) and reproductive parameters (days to bud opening, spike length, and number of buds per spike) were recorded for evaluation. The studies revealed that Potomac Early Rose (PER), Maryland Lavender (ML), Potomac Royal (P-Roy), Potomac White (PW), Potomac Early Orange (PEO), and Monaco Violet (MV) cultivars of Snapdragon performed well regarding vegetative growth parameters; while Potomac Early Pink (PEP), Maryland Golden Brnz (MGB), Monaco Yellow (MY), Potomac Orange Dark (POD), and Monaco Baltimore Rose (MBR) performed poorly. The results have shown significant effect of time of sowing on all the parameters under study except for the number of leaves. The cultivars Potomac Early Rose (PER), and Maryland Lavender (ML) were best to perform reproductively, and produced better quality flower spike compared to other cultivars tested under existing environmental conditions of Sargodha (Punjab), Pakistan. In all the three sowing times, first sowing time (10 November 2009) was most suitable for better quality production of cut flower snapdragon in Sargodha, Punjab-Pakistan.