Impact of Foliar Application of Plant Rioregulators On Morphological, Floral and Yield Traits in Bottle Gourd [Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl.]

Abstract

THESIS TOPIC: "IMPACT OF FOLIAR APPLICATION OF PLANT BIO-REGULATORS ON MORPHOLOGICAL, FLORAL AND YIELD TRAITS IN BOTTLE GOURD ILagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standi.]" The present investigation entitled "Impact of foliar application of Plant Bioregulators on morphological, floral and yield traits in Bottle gourd [Lagellaria siceraria (Molina) Standi.]" was conducted at Horticultural Research Centre of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture & Technology, Meerut during summer season of 2013 and 2014. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with three replications. The treatments involved in the study were 16 in numbers i.e. Tt GAJ 5 ppm, T2 GA3 10 ppm, T3 GA3 20 ppm, T4 GA3 50 ppm, Ts GA3 75 ppm, T6 NAA 50 ppm, T1 NAA 75 ppm, T8 NAA 100 ppm, T9 NAA 150 ppm, T10 NAA 200 ppm, T 11 ETHREL 50 ppm, T12 ETHREL 75 ppm, T13 ETHREL 100 ppm, Tt4 ETHREL 150 ppm, Tts ETHREL 200 ppm and T15 CONTROL (WATER SPRAY) and they were applied at 2 and 4 leaf stages with an objective to study the effect of GA3 . NAA and Ethrel on morphological , floral and yield traits of bottle gourd. . On the basis of result obtained and summarized from the present study, it can be concluded that all the observations taken for bottle gourd were found to be superior with the application of bio-regulators. In the present study, it was observed that the foliar application of 75 ppm GA3 increased all the vegetative parameters [i.e. vine length (m), number of leaves planf1, leaf area (cm2 ) , primary branches planr1 , internodal length (em) and nodes vine-1 ] followed by 50 and 20 ppm GA3, whereas Ethrel 200 ppm increased all the floral and yield traits [i.e. node of appearance of first male and female flower, days to appearance of first male and female flower, male and female flower planr1, sex ratio, days to first picking, number of marketable fruits planr1, fruit weight (g), fruit length (em), fruit diameter (em), fruit yield planf1 (Kg) and total yield (q/ha)] followed by 200 ppm NAA and 5 ppm GA3 . Therefore among all the concentrations ofbio-regulators applied Ethrel200 ppm was found significantly most effective in increasing the yield and yield attributing traits. Hence, foliar application of Ethrel (200 ppm) may be suggested in bottle gourd plant at 2 and 4 leaf stages in order to get higher yield of good quality fruits as well as the maximum net return per hectare and B : C ratio under western Uttar Pradesh