Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 22 ISSUE 1
Written by Maria BALA, Adina ANDRAȘ, Florin SALA

The present study evaluated the size of crocus flowers as an element of ornamental quality, depending on the biometric parameters of the plants, against the background of different growing substrates. Two types of crocus were studied: "Queen of the Blues" crocus and "Yellow" crocus. The plants were evaluated in terms of height (Ph, cm) at the beginning of flowering (Ph B-Flo) and at the end of flowering (Ph E-Flo). The size of the flowers (Fs) was evaluated based on the diameter (Fs, cm). Three different substrates were used: sand (V1), mixture of sand and compost (V2) and soil (V3). The bulbs were planted at t1 - mid-October (a), t2 - early November (b), and t3 - mid-November (c). There were 9 experimental variants: V1a - sand at t1; V2a - sand and compost at t1; V3a - soil at t1; V1b– sand at t2; V2b - sand and compost at t2; V3b - soil at t2; V1c - sand at t3; V2c - sand and compost at t3; V3c - soil at t3. The size of the flowers (Fs) varied between 3.97 cm (V1c) and 5.07 cm (V2a) in "Queen of the Blue", respectively between 3.83 cm (V1c) and 4.07 cm (V2b) in "Yellow" crocus. 3D models and in the form of isoquants graphically represented the variation of Fs depending on the physiological parameters (Ph B-Flo and Ph E-Flo). The fs estimation safety was quantified by evaluating the degree of fit between the true values (RFs) and the predicted values (PFs). PC1 explained 79.234% of variance, and PC2 explained 19.046% of variance in the case of the "Queen of the Blues" crocus, and in the case of Yellow crocus, PC1 explained 88.851% of variance, and PC2 explained 8.8951% of variance.

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