Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 22 ISSUE 2
Written by Maria BALA, Adina ANDRAȘ, Florin SALA

The flowering period of the crocus was studied in relation to the planting period and the growing substrate. The "Queen of the Blues" variety was used as biological material. Sand (Gs1), a mixture of sand and compost (Gs2) and garden soil (Gs3) were used as growing substrate. Crocus bulbs were planted on three different dates in 2020: October 20 (PD1), November 3 (PD2), and November 17 (PD3), simultaneously on each of the three types of substrate used. Flowering time (FT) was assessed in the spring of the following year (2021). By planting the bulbs on the three substrates at three different times, the whole experiment recorded flowering in the spring between March 2 and April 1, 2021, but differentiated depending on the planting date and substrate. The earliest flowering (March 2) was recorded in the case of planting on PD1Gs2 conditions. The latest flowering (March 22) was recorded in the case of planting on PD2Gs3 condition. The longest flowering time was recorded in the case of planting on PD1Gs2 condition, with a period of 29 days, between March 2 and March 30. Regression analysis facilitated the obtaining of models that described the variation of FT in relation to the time from the date of planting (PD) to the beginning of flowering (B-Flo), considered as T1, and the time from the date of planting (PD) to at the end of flowering (E-Flo), considered as T2. According to PCA, PC1 explained 81.613% of variance, and PC2 explained 18.387% of variance.

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