Anthodium’s are perennial, herbaceous epiphytes with a climbing habit. They are produced commercially for the wide variety of colors and shapes of their heart-shaped spates, often referred to as the floral portion. Anthodium’s are the most important cut flowers in the floriculture industry today. The top four producers of anthodium cut flowers worldwide are Netherlands, Hawaii, Mauritius, and Jamaica, followed by smaller tropical flower producers in the Philippines, Tahiti, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Brazil, Trinidad, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Florida and California. Disease problems, including anthracnose, root rot, and lesion nematode, developed as cultivation increased from small plots to large operations. The most serious disease problem to strike the industry is bacterial blight caused by the pathogen Xanthomonas axonopodis pv.dieffenbachiae (X.campestris pave. dieffenbachia). The disease was first reported in Kauai in 1972. The disease reached epidemic proportion in 1985 – 1989, destroying the production of approximately 200 small farms. Once introduced into new growing area, bacterial blight may result in 50 – 100% loss of plants. This devastating disease has limited anthodium production not only in Hawaii, but throughout the world where anthodium’s are produced. Bacterial blight affects most genera and species in the family Tracheae By 1992, it had been reported in the Philippines, Guam, Australia, Florida, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Martinique, Venezuela and Trinidad and has since been reported in India. Recently, in Coors district of Karnataka, the disease divested many farms. To be continued……

This is again most important decision a grower has to take for the overall viability of a rose project. There are thousands of different rose varieties throughout the world covering a full range of shapes, sizes and colors. It may not be possible for a grower to achieve high returns for all the varieties he chooses. Even if 8 out of 10 varieties fair well and produce as per their characteristics the projects should be deemed to be doing sufficiently well. Adaptability to local conditions should be deemed as a prerequisite to the requirement of a variety chosen. Our growing conditions are so adverse that during the summer the temperature rises to +42 degree centigrade and during winters the night temperature go down to 5 – 7 degree centigrade, particularly in Maharashtra. Bangalore has more uniform conditions in this regard. In spite of such a variation in our environment and climatic conditions Indian growers are in a position to grow Roses which are competing in the international market. Even if the quality of our produce is close to 70 percent of the same produced by countries with more favorable conditions. Especially in Africa, South America., we can still compete with them with overall realizations through bigger volumes, due to better light conditions. Looking at the good light conditions combined with good year round production, growers in India must emphasize on bigger volume of production, while maintaining the basic quality parameters. We must fully understand if the rose projects in India have to survive, it would be only through volumes. As such select the varieties with the following characteristics: Varieties should be well adapted to local conditions balanced stem lengths and colors in the varietals mix, Avgas stem length of 50 – 70 cm would be wise proposition, under our conditions. We can have average productions of 180 – 200 stems per sq met in this category, which is enough to maintain the desired quantity and quality. Longer stems may fetch good realization but, that is when the bud size matched with the stem length. We can achieve such a quality only for couple of months of winter during the whole year, but we would have to sacrifice on the production. Have good quantities of fast colors like red followed by pink and yellow. The most important parameter while choosing a variety has to be its vase life, price at the international market and above all, resistance it diseases and should be good traveler. To be continued…. With Regards.