Bulb growth parameters of wild geophyte, giant snowdrop (Galanthus elwesii Hook. f.) in different media and nutrient solution recipes

Abstract

Giant snowdrop (Galanthus elwesii Hook. f.) is reported on CITES lists as the most important wild-collected export flower bulb of Turkey. After the destruction caused by extensive collecting for many years, collection and trade have been controlled by the government since the late 1980’s. Export quotas are annually set by a technical committee, following field inspections by scientific teams. Small bulbs (under-sized) are also unintentionally collected from nature together with marketable sized bulbs (> 4 cm). Low success rate at cultivation of field grown snowdrop and loss of these small bulbs reveals the necessity of the studies on soilless culture. This study aimed to select the suitable growing media and mineral nutrition for snowdrop bulb production. Under-sized (unmarketable) bulbs of Galanthus elwesii Hook. f. were cultivated in four different growing media (perlite, coco-peat, soil, or spent mushroom compost + perlite) with four different nutrient solutions. The growing media affected most of the investigated parameters (sprouting time, sprouting ratio, total weight and increase ratio, number of harvested bulbs, and bulb grades). No significant effect of nutrient solutions was determined on the parameters. Spent mushroom compost + perlite appeared to be the most effective growing media.