Exotic Flower HELI CONIA Production Technology and Post Harvest Handling

Exotic Flower Heliconia

Production Technology and Post Harvest Handling

—1 Chandrashekar, 2 S. Y., Harishkumar, K and 3 Kavana, G. B.

H. rostrata

Heliconias are long been popular because of their exotic showy inflorescences. These are native to South and Central America, are popular as best plant in landscaping and as a potential specially cut flower in flower decorations. Heliconia, popularly known as lobster claw, wild plantain or false bird of paradise, is a beautiful flower with multicolour bracts like red, pink, orange, yellow and green combined with different sizes and shapes. Due to its exotic appearance and brilliant colours, it fetches premium price in the market. Leaves of some varieties of heliconia are also sold as cut leaves for flower decoration.

Botany

Heliconia is a rhizomatus, perennial flowering herb in the family Heliconiaceae and order Zingiberales. Heliconia are found to be diploid with

H. psittacorum

2n=24 chromosomes and even triploid (2n=3x=36) cultivars also found to exist. There are about 89 species under the genus Heliconia and more than 350 varieties. They form a group of plant with an erect, aerial and stem like tube composed of overlapping leaf sheaths called psuedostem. Leaves resembles to banana and plant spread by means of a fleshy underground rhizome. Flowers vary in size and shape and are usually large and showy, in colour ranging from pink, red, orange, yellow and different combination. Heliconia have erect or pendulas terminal inflorescence composed of two or more boat shaped bracts arising from a central axis. Stalk length range from 0.5 to 3.0 m and inflorescence size from 10 to 50 cm. Depending on variety, heliconias will range in height from two to twenty feet, often with extensive rhizomatous

H. acuminata

growth. Flowers are mostly pollinated by humming bird (Eulampis jugularis), other pollinators like bats and insects (Chrysomelids and mosquitoes).

H. latispatha

v Heliconia used as a ideal cut flower because of its brilliant colour, exotic form, long straight peduncles and excellent post harvest life. v Heliconia acts as a best plant for landscaping for Creating boundaries, screening for privacy, controlling soil erosion & hiding foundations (foundation planting). v These are also used as potted plant for interior display like Heliconia psittacorum, Heliconia stricta, Heliconia angusta and cv. Golden torch. v Leaves of heliconia are used for thatching as well as food wrapping in v

H. bihai

Carribean and Mexico, they are also used inflower decoration as background material. In Brazil roots and seeds of certain varieties are used for medicinal purposes.

Importance and uses

Types of heliconia

Heliconias are broadly classified into two types namely erect heliconias which stands straight with bracts pointing up and pendent heliconias which hang with bracts pointing down.

These types can further be divided into four sub types like (Smith, 1968): v Inflorescence erect and in one plane: Heliconia aurantiaca, H. aureo striata,

H. bourgaeana, H. caribaea,

H. humilis, H. psittacorum and H. wagneriana. v Inflorescence erect and

in more than one plane:

Heliconia metallica Planchon and Linden ex Hooker and

H. latispatha Bentham.

Inflorescence pendant

and in one plane: Heliconia rostrata Ruizet Pavon and H. catheta R. R. Smith sp. nov. var. Catheta.

Inflorescence pendant and in more than one

plane: Heliconia collinsiana Griggs var. velutina and H. collinsiana Griggs var. collinsian.

Species and cultivars:

Heliconia stricta: It has a beautiful inflorescence resembling lobster claws. Flower colours are ranged from red, gold, orange, maroon and green singly or in combination. These exotic tropical flowers are ideal for small arrangements as their inflorescence range from 5’’ – 12” long and are not too heavy. H. Stricta cv. Dwarf Jamaican grows up to a height of 0.5 to 1 m.

Cultivars: Bucky, Dwarf Jamaican, First bird, Royal Tagami. Heliconia rostrata: It is native of Peru & generally distributed in tropical America. It is commonly known as hanging lobster claws. Traditional and most recognized heliconias with magnificent pendant inflorescence of alternating bracts each 6-10 cm long, scarlet red tipped with cream To meet Hawaii Fancy grade standards, inflorescences must be well developed (at least two open bracts), clean, well formed, intact, fresh, firm, well coloured, properly trimmed and free from damage caused by diseases, insects or mechanical or other means.

to yellow. The flowers are deep red tipped with cream to yellow green colour. Plant blooms throughout year.

Heliconia psittacorum: Specie is native to coast of Guyana. The H. psittacorum (or Parrot’s beak) heliconia are small, dainty and exotically tropical and resemble the plant known commonly as Bird of Paradise. Flower heads appear to be hand painted and glow with brilliant colours and greenish yellow flowers with black spots near apex and bloom abundantly throughout the year. The cultivar proved very productive, while Andromeda was similar but taller with more flower heads.

Cultivars: Andromeda, Lady Di, Nickeriensis, Golden torch and Sassy. Heliconia latispatha: It is native to Central and South America. Plant has erect inflorescence with well separated boat shaped bracts orange yellow at the base and red towards tip greenish flowers.

Heliconia bihai: It is commonly called as wild plantain or Fire bird. Flowers are greenish yellow clustered in the axils of large stiff boat shaped crimson red flattened bracts with pointed tip and arranged in two ranks on erect inflorescence.

Heliconia indica: It is a foliage type of heliconia. It has fairly insignificant flowers, but often has spectacular foliage.

Heliconia acuminate: It is an erect herb, typically growing 1.6 m tall, native to the South American countries of Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia and Peru. It is also grown as an ornamental plant in other regions.

Heliconia angusta: It is commonly called the Christmas heliconia because its red and white inflorescences usually emerge during the holiday season. Wild populations, native to southeastern Brazil, are classified as vulnerable by theWorldConservationUnion largely due to the conversion of their diminishing habitats for agricultural purposes.

Heliconia aurantiaca: It is endemic to Central America - south Mexico and Guatemala. Its natural habitat is montane forests.

Heliconia burleana: It is native to Ecuador, Colombia and Peru. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forest.

Soil and climate

Heliconia can be grown in a wide range of soils but deep rich well pulverized and well drained loam soil is considered best. Light play a

H. angusta H. aruntiaca H. burleana Golden torch

H. caribae

very important role like more light intensity produces good plant growth, increased yield and flower production. Lower light intensity produces taller and week plant growth that leads to lower productivity (Broschat and Donselman, 1983). Plant grows well in a temperature of 21 – 35 0 c . Increasing the minimum air temp from 15 to 21 0 c helps shoot emergence and no. of flowering stems/m 2 , stem length and quality is doubled in the cultivar. Shade regulation –40-60% is best.

Propagation:

Seed propagation: In tropical countries natural pollination occurs by the pollinators like humming bird and bats. Seeds of H. psittacorum and other species will take 2-3 months for germination at a temperature of 28 0 c . Time required for flowering in seed propagated plant will vary with the species. Smaller species –erect inflorescence will blooms in a year. Larger species – two to more years, rarely seed propagated and seeds are mostly sterile.

Vegetative propagation:

Healthy rhizomes containing terminal or axillary 2 to 3 buds with an average weight of 40 g isidealforrapidestablishment. Rhizomes with single bud

H. clinophila

will take late development. Rhizomes should be dipped in dilute fungicide solution before being planted in well drained soil.

Tissue culture: Multiplication of heliconias was the first problem because of the slow germination of its seeds (about three months to three years). Multiplication by rhizome (the underground stem of a heliconia) is also time-consuming and therefore hardly an alternative is to develop a protocol for tissue culture in heliconia.

Nathan et al., (1992) developed a protocol for in vitro propagation of Heliconia psittacorum by using terminal and axillary buds of rhizomes. Culture was done

H. collinsiana

on Murashige and Skoog (MS) media with some modification like 40μM BA, 150ml coconut water/l, 30g sucrose/l and 2g Gelritel. Shoot multiplication was achieved on the above medium without coconut water, but supplemented with 10μM BA. Shoot were rooted on MS basal medium and successfully acclimated to greenhouse condition.

Micropropagation of Heliconia is difficult mainly due to the high frequency of endogenous contamination. Embryo culture techniques have been used to generate normal seedlings to be used as initial explants. Activated charcoal was essential to embryo germination from Heliconia rostrata and H. bihai (Souza et al., (2010)).

H. eden pink H. densiflora

Spacing and planting

Time of Planting: January to March is suitable for establishment of the plant to get a quick response of growth in the beginning of monsoon.

Spacing: 100 cm apart from plant to plant and row to row. If rhizomes are planted at 40 x 40 cm means the plant will produce more number of suckers in 2 years so replanting should be done for every 2 years once.

Irrigation: Watering should be done at weekly interval during dry weather in the growing season.

Manures and Fertilizers: 4 kg of FYM/m 2 and 40:20:20 g NPK/m 2 is given in 2split doses for better growth, yield and quality of flowers. The first dose is given at sprouting of new shoots and second at 45 days after planting i.e. suckering started.

After care: A timely weeding and pruning of scorched and older leaves should be a regular operation. As flower is monocarpic in nature once the flower is over the flower bearing shoot should be pruned to ground level to encourage lateral growth of shoots.

Harvesting and yield: After planting in about 6-7 months flowers can be harvested. It flowers throughout the year but higher number of flowers can be obtained during November and December months. The flowers can be harvested with peduncles of 70 cm or more with upto 20 florets per bract. Flower stalks should be cut near the ground early in the day. H. psittacorum is harvested at the stage with none, one or two open bracts. Larger heliconia can be cut when one- half to two-third of the inflorescences are blooming (Broschat and Donselman, 1983). H. Psittacorum is often shipped with one to three leaves remaining. On an average in one sq. m. area planted plants can yield 30-40 stems in first year and 60-75 stems insecond year onwards.

In packing, H. psittacorum is often packed in a “metric” bunch of 10 and sleeved in plastic film or open weave netting. Up to 25 such bunches may be packed in a 150 x 50 x 25 cm box. Medium sized heliconias such as H. bihai and H. stricta may be packed 20 to 50 per box while the large H. caribaea are packed as 10 to 15 pieces. Moist or dry shredded newspaper is used as well as

Heliconia-claw

layers of newspaper to reduce damage due to shifting during shipment.

Pest and diseases: There are no serious insect pests and diseases of Heliconia.

Aphids - It often infests flowers for feeding on the nectar. Sprayingofdimethoate at 0.05%

Snail - It will chew the young leaves of heliconia by scraping, making big irregular holes. Adult and young ones devour plants during nights. Hand picking by dropping in 5% salt solution will reduce population and killing snails. Spray of neem oil @ 10 ml/l and soap nut extract @ 60g/l protects foliage from damage. Plant parasitic nematode viz. root knot nematode; reniform, burrowing nematode and lesion often infest heliconia. Chemical fumigation of soil prior to planting; planting using only hot water treated or nematode free rhizomes.

The most common fungal diseases are Root rot (Phytophthora) and Stem rot (Phythium). Fungicides like Captaf, Mencozeb, Metalaxyl. Soil Solarization is useful. Excess moisture should be avoided.

Leaf spot - Removed infected leaves. Foliar application of Mancozeb or Chlorothanil is effective.

Production of heliconia as inter crop in coconut

The study was taken up to check the potential of heliconia as an intercrop in coconut plantation at ICAR Research Complex for Goa, Old Goa. The experiment included 25 varieties of heliconias planted as intercrop in existing 20 year old coconut plantation (Cv. Benaulim) from 2008-2012.

Planting material:

Generally heliconias are propagated by suckers. Each suckers produces around 20- 40 side suckers in one year of planting depending on the variety. Hence, growing of heliconia for planting material is also profitable by selling each sucker between Rs. 25 to 250 depending up on the variety.

Spacing and planting:

The heliconias are fast growing plant with more number of side suckers thereby drawing water and nutrients continuously from the soil. But for easy management and flowering, it is planted at a spacing of 1.5x1.5 m so as to accommodate 16 heliconia plants in four coconuts planted at 8x8 m spacing. Pit of 1.5-2 cubic feet are made and filled with well decomposed organic manure for better rooting. Immediately after

H. vellarigera H. wagneriana H.chartacea H. Foreroi

planting, the plants are watered thoroughly for better establishment. Generally, it takes about 30-45 days to get the sucker to establish. Hence periodic watering is important.

Suckering and nutrition:

Suckering is the important phenomenon of heliconia. Hence nutrition has to be maintained for better suckering and flowering. G e n e r a l l y , n u t r i t i o n application rates for N, P, and K of 1.2, 0.5, 0.63 kg/m 2 , respectively gave maximum response for a number of variables including flower weight, leaf area and all vegetative characters. These rates, in the approximate ratio of 2:1:1 applied at 3kg/ m 2 / year applied in the basins of heliconia plants. In addition to inorganic fertilizers, application of well decomposed FYM or green manure has beneficial effects on flower and sucker production in heliconia.

Flowering and harvesting:

Generally heliconia starts first flowering at 6-8 months after planting depending on the variety. The performance under coconut indicated that it produced around 10-15 flowering suckers/ clump/year depending on the variety. The flowers are harvested when 3-4 bracts are already open. The flowers are cut with at least 30-45 cm long stem with leaf. If it is for long distance transport, the leaves are removed and flower spikes are properly packed in CFB boxes with cushioning material for long distance transport.

Yield and income:

On an average, 600-700 plants of heliconia can be planted in one hectare of coconut plantation as inter crop. Each clump can produce 5-10 flowering suckers/clump in one year. The average price of heliconia flower ranges from Rs.5 to Rs.20 depending upon the variety. Hence a minimum income of around 25,000/ha to maximum of 90,000/ha can be realized depending upon the variety of heliconia planted. In addition to flower, production of sucker is an important income generationactivity. The sucker production depends on the variety and it ranges from 15- 35 suckers per clump. Even 5-10 suckers per clump has to be periodically removed to maintain the spacing and lighting for plants. Hence, the average price of sucker is around Rs.20-50 depending upon the variety. An average of Rs.10/sucker can yield up to Rs.50, 000/ha through sale of sucker and it will be an additional income to the farmers.

Pre harvest factors:

For export purpose selection of long-lasting heliconias are preferred. Among H. psittacorum cultivars, Lady Di is reported to last 7 to 10 days while Andromeda lasts 10 to 15 days (Powell, 1991) or up to 21 days (Donselman and Broschat, 1986). Among the large heliconia, H. latispatha and H. rostrata are regarded as poor keepers with only 3 to 5 days vase life, while H. caribaea and H. wagneriana can last 15 days or more (Criley, 1990; Powell, 1991). The cutting of H. wagneriana stems base at every 48 hrs was able to improve the quality and to maintain the ornamental status, tissue colour and brightness for 18 days (Costa, et al., 2015).

Post harvest handling of heliconia:

After trimming, the whole inflorescence is immersed in an insecticide dip to kill insects.

Diverse practices are used by growers and shippers. Inflorescences are dipped for 5 minutes, and then rinsed. Hand cleaning is necessary to dislodge insects and to remove dead flowers. The stalks are held in water while the inflorescences dry before packing. Floral preservatives do not improve vaselife (Broschat and Donselman, 1983; Powell, 1991), but anti transpirants improve postharvest life slightly (Broschat and Donselman, 1983; Ka-ipo et al., 1989). The lack of response to preservatives may be associated with poor vascular development of the base of the flower stem, while antitranspirants and waxes provide limited response due to a failure to completely coat the bract surface.

Heliconias are sensitive to temperatures below 13 0 C and should not be placed in cold storage (Donselman and Broschat, 1986). Cold injury develops as black spots at the base of the bracts. As desiccation reduces postharvest life, storage conditions should maintain 90-95% humidity condition. Small heliconias such as H. psittacorum and H. angusta are bunched (5s, 10s) and may be sleeved in plastic film or netting. Some uses plastic sleeves over the inflorescences of large heliconias to prevent bruising. Large heliconias are usually packed with moist shredded newspaper or between layers of newspaper to prevent shifting. Bunches of the smaller heliconias are packed on top of the heavier heliconias. (Criley and Paull, 1993)

Grades and standards:

To meet Hawaii Fancy grade standards, inflorescences must be well developed (at least two open bracts), clean, well formed, intact, fresh, firm, well coloured, properly trimmed and free from damage caused by diseases, insects or mechanical or other means. Not more than five per cent of the heliconias in any lot may fail to meet the requirements for the fancy grade and two per cent or fewer are allowed serious defects. Stem length, other than a minimum of 15 cm, is not otherwise a component of grade (Hawaii Dept. of Agriculture, 1972). n

Authors: 1 Assistant professor (Floriculture and Landscape Architecture), College of Horticulture, Mudigere 2 Ph.D. Scholar (Floriculture and Landscape Architecture), College of Horticulture, Bagalkot 3 Assistant professor (Floriculture and Landscape Architecture) College of Horticulture, Mudigere

E-mail: chandrashekar.sy@gmail.com

Reference:

1. Broschat, T. K. and Donselman, H., 1983, Production and postharvest culture of Heliconia psittacorum flowers in South Florida. Proc. Fla. State Hort. Soc. 96: 272-273. 2. Costa, L. C., Costa, R. R., Ribeiro, W. S., Carneiro, G. G., Barbosa, J. A. and Finger, F. L., 2015. Postharvest Longevity of Heliconia wagneriana. Acta Horticulture. 193-200. 3. Criley, R. A. and Paull, R. E., 1993. Review: Post harvest handling of bold tropical cut flowers-Anthurium, Alpinia purpurata, Heliconia and Strelitzia. Acta Horticulture. 201-212. 4. Criley, R. A., 1990. Production of heliconia as cut flowers and their potential as new potted plants. Hort. Digest (Univ. Hawaii) 92: 1-7. 5. Donselman, H. and Broschat, T. K., 1986, Abstract: Production of Heliconia psittacorum for cut flowers in South Florida. Heliconia Soc. Intern. 1(4): 4-6. 6. Hawaii Department of Agriculture. 1972. Regulation No. 2, Title 4, Subtitle 4, Chapter 42. Standards for Hawaii grown flowers and foliage. Subchapter 2. Standards for grades of flowers and foliage. 4-42-8, Anthurium. 4-42-10, bird of paradise. 4-42-15, red ginger. 4-42- 18, heliconia. Honolulu, HI. 7. Ka-ipo, R., Sakai, W. S., Furutani, S. C. and Collins, M., 1989. Effect of postharvest antitranspirants on the shelf life of Heliconia psittacorum cv. Parakeet cut flowers. Bul. Heliconia Soc. Intern. 4 (3): 13-14. 8. Nathan, M. J., Goh, C. J. and Kumar, P. P., 1992, In Vitro propagation of Heliconia psittacorum by bud culture. Hort Science, 27(5):450-452. 1992. 9. Powell, J. 1991. Growing heliconias for cut flowers. N. Terr. Austrl. Dept. Primary Ind. And Fisheries Agnote 442. 10. Smith, R. R., 1968, A Taxonomic Revision of the Genus Heliconia in Middle America, Ph. D. dissertation, University of Florida. 11. Souz, E. H., Soares, T. L., Souza, F. V. D. and Santos-Serejo, J. A., 2010, Micropropagation of Heliconia rostrata and Heliconia bihai from mature zygotic embryos. Acta horticulturae. 315- 320.