Glory lily (Gloriosa superb L.) is one of the important medicinal crops which has got great demand in pharmaceutical industries. The medicinal value of glory lily is commendable due to the presence of alkaloids. Recently, a new alkaloid namely 1-2 Didemethyl colchicine has been isolated from seeds. The crop is propagated through seed and tubers. When the tubers are used there is a wide variation in size and weight, and ultimately reflects on growth and yield of the crop. Hence a study was conducted in the Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University, Tamilnadu. India during (June 2008 – December 2008) to find out an optimum seed tuber size to enhance growth and yield in glory lily. The experiment was conducted in a Randomized Block Design in four replications with five different sizes and weight of tubers ranging from less than 30g (TO, 31-50g (T2), 51-70g (T3), 71-90g (T4), and 91-1 lOg (T5). The tubers of various sizes as per the treatments were planted in the field and required cultural practices were adopted of the crop as per the recommendation. The growth and yield parameters were recorded and subjected to statistical analysis. The results revealed that the plant height, stem girth, number of primary and secondary branches, number of flowers, number of pods and number of seeds per pod were recorded the highest in the tuber size of 51-70g (T3)followed by the tuber size of 31 -50g(T2).
