Effect of Gibberellic Acid on Growth, Quality and Yield of Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.)

Abstract

This study was conducted with the objective to determine the effects of Gibberellic acid (GA3) on growth, fruit yield and quality of tomato. The experiment consisted of one tomato variety- Golden, and six treatments with five levels of gibberellic acid (GA3- 10 ppm, 20 ppm, 30 ppm, 40 ppm and 50 ppm), arranged in randomized block design with three replications. The highest plant height, Number of leaves, Number of fruits, Fresh fruit weight has been observed and ascorbic acid, total soluble solid (TSS) was estimated for GA3 50 ppm. I. Introduction Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) belongs to family solanaceae having chromosome number (2n=24). It is a self pollinated crop and Peru-Ecuador region is considered to be the centre of origin. Tomato was introduced by the Portuguese. Tomato is cultivated in tropics and subtropics of the world. Tomato is one of the most highly praised vegetables consumed widely and it is a major source of vitamins and minerals. It is one of the most popular salad vegetables and is taken with great relish. Tomato has a significant role inhuman nutrition because of its rich source of lycopene, minerals and vitamins such as ascorbic acid and s-carotene which are anti-oxidants and promote good health. Plant growth regulators (PGRs) are extensively used in horticultural crops to enhance plant growth and improve yield by increasing fruit number, fruit set and size. Plant growth regulators like promoters, inhibitors or retardants play a key role in controlling internal mechanisms of plant growth by interacting with key metabolic processes such as, nucleic acid metabolism and protein synthesis. Use of plant growth regulators (PGR's) might be a useful alternative to increase crop production. Recently, there has been global realization of the important role of PGR's in increasing crop yield. GAs constitute a group of plant hormones that control developmental processes such as germination, shoot elongation, tuber formation, flowering, and fruit set and growth in diverse species. The most widely available plant growth regulator is GA3 or gibberellic acid, which induces stem and internode elongation, seed germination, enzyme production during germination and fruit setting and growth (Davies, 1995). Gibberellic acid is an important growth regulator that may have many uses to modify the growth, yield and yield contributing characters of plant (Rafeekher et al., 2002). Keeping these things, the present investigations to find out the effect of gibberellic acid on growth quality and yield of tomato. II. Materials And Methods This study was conducted at Central research field of SHIATS, Allahabad (U.P.). The experiment consisted of one tomato variety- Golden, five levels of gibberellic acid (GA3- 10 ppm, 20 ppm, 30 ppm, 40 ppm and 50 ppm arranged in randomized block design with three replications and six treatments (T0- Control, T1- 10 ppm GA3, T2- 20 ppm GA3, T3- 30 ppm GA3, T4- 40 ppm GA3, T5- 50 ppm GA3. The required weight of the PGRs was taken using electronic sensitive balance and solution was prepared by dissolving in 1 mg L -1 . The solution was poured into hand-held sprayer and was directly sprayed on the plants three times at 20, 40 and 60 days after transplanting. Spraying was performed early in the morning to avoid rapid drying of the spray solution, due to transpiration. All the recommended cultural practices were followed during the conduction of the experiment. Data were collected from selected plants in the rows. The collected data includes average plant height (cm), average number of leaves, average number of fruits, average fresh fruit weight (kg), ascorbic acid (mg/100g), total soluble solids (°Brix). The data was analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and mean separation was carried out at 5% probability level. III. Results And Discussion Plant height (cm)