Glory lily
Botanical Name -Gloriosa superba
Family -Colchicaceae

Soil –

Red soil with good drainage facility and pH range of 6.5 – 7.5. Clayey soils are not suitable for cultivation.

Climate-

Dry climate, with an annual rainfall of 70 cm is suitable.

Propagation through ‘v‘ shaped tubers. Select disease free and healthy tubers weighing 40-60g. Sprouting is observed during July to August.

2,000 kg tubers / ha. Tubers have to be treated with 0.1% carbendazim solution by soaking for half an hour to avoid tuber rot.

July-August

After ploughing the land, apply FYM @10t /ha

Planting is done in raised ridges prepared in east west direction. The ridges shoud be 2 feet width and I foot height. The inter row distance should be 5.5 feet. Tubers have to be planted at 5-10 cm depth.
Being a climber, glory lily needs support, which may be done using live standards (Commiphora beryii) or dead standards (Dodonea viscosa) or by GI wires. Care should be taken not to damage the tubers while laying the support.
Apply 120:50:75 kg of NPK ha-1 , (one third nitrogen, entire P and one third potassium as basal and the remaining nitrogen and potassium in two splits) along with vermicompost 5t /ha + bioinoculants (Trichoderma viride and Pseudomonas fluorescence @ 2.5 kg/ha with ZnSO4 @ 25kg/ha, FeSO4 @ 50 kg/ha, Borax @ 10 kg/ha, Sodium molybdate @ 0.5kg/ha at the time of planting. Foliar sprays of FeSO4 (1%), ZnSO4, (0.5%) Borax (0.2%) twice @ 200 mg/kg at early and late flowering stage, have to be given.
rrigation is done immediately after planting and once in five days interval. Weekly irrigation is essential at the time of flowering and pod set.
Care should be taken not to damage the growing tip. Once the tip is damaged, the plant will not produce subsequent branches or laterals which will reduce the flowering and pod yield.
As self pollination percentage is low, assisted hand pollination is required. The mature stamens are collected and dusted on receptive stigma during early morning hours (7- 11 am). The ideal stage of receptive stigma can easily be judged by the tricolour (green, yellow and scarlet) petals. This method is followed by foliar application of 0.1 % boron + 0.5 % zinc sulphate at fortnightly intervals have to be done to induce higher seed set.

Pests
Lily caterpillar, Polytela gloriosae, Semilooper, Plusia signata, Tobacco caterpillar, Spodoptera litura.
 Spray neem seed kernel extract 5% or neem oil 3%

Leaf blight disease

The crop duration is 180 days and pods can be harvested when the colour starts
turning light yellow and when skin of the pods shrinks. After harvest, pods should be dried
for 2-3 days to facilitate separation of seeds from locule. The seeds are dried again under
open sun for 3-5 more days until the seed moisture maintains to 6-8 per cent. After drying,
sand, stone and other unwanted particles have to be removed and the healthy seeds should
be packed in bags.

400-500 kg dry seeds/ha and 1000 kg tubers/ ha/ year

1. Remove the infected plant debris from the field
2. Spray mancozeb @ 0.2% concentration or propiconazole (0.1% ) or hexaconazole (0.1% ) at the time of infection.
3. Four to five sprays may be given at 15 days interval for check the leaf blight severity in this crop
4. Spray 0.5 per cent ZnSO4 two times at fortnightly interval staring from 45th day after planting