Effect of Plant Growth Regulators and Micro-nutrients on Vegetative Growth, Flowering and Yield Attributes of Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.)

Abstract

The experiment was conducted to observe the effect of plant growth regulators (GA3 and NAA) and micro-nutrients (ZnSO4 and Borax) on vegetative growth, flowering and yield attributes of litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.). ZnSO4 applied @ 0.4% resulted in maximum per cent increase in plant height and canopy spread, i.e. 5.78% and 6.65% respectively. Whereas, application of Borax @ 0.4% exhibited maximum per cent increase in plant girth (8.72%). NAA @ 2.5 ppm was effective in improving the flowering parameters of litchi. With respect to physical parameters of fruit and yield component, application of borax @ 0.4% resulted in maximum fruit set (43.76%), number of fruits per tree (1128.67), fruit yield (25.11 kg/tree), fruit weight (22.24 g), aril weight (15.65 g) and minimum fruit cracking (5.08%). Lowest fruit drop percentage (60.91%) was however caused by application of ZnSO4 @ 0.4%.