Effect of Plant Growth Regulators on Growth, Yield and Quality of Papaya cv. Red Lady under Prayagraj Agro Climatic Conditions

Abstract

The present investigation was conducted on 1-month-old seedlings from March 2022 to Jan 2023 to find out the suitable treatment for growth, yield and quality of Papaya cv. Red Lady. The statistical design adopted for the experiment was randomized block design (RBD) with three replications and ten treatment combinations. viz, T0 (Control), T1(NAA 100 ppm), T2 ( NAA 150 ppm), T3 (NAA 200 ppm), T4 (GA3 100 ppm), T5 (GA3 150 ppm), T6 (GA3 200 ppm), T7 (CCC 500 ppm), T8 (CCC 750 ppm), T9 (CCC 1000 ppm). The treatments were applied by soil drenching at the initiation of the experiment, vegetative phase, pre-flowering and fruit setting stage to assess the effect on growth, yield and quality of papaya. The results of the present investigation revealed that the treatment T6 (GA3 200 ppm) outstand in all the aspects like maximum plant height (142.13 cm), number of functional leaves per plant (17.14), stem diameter (54.37 mm) minimum days to first flowering (95.42), no. of flowers per plant (56.09), no. of fruit per plant (23.12), fruit weight (1263.38 gm), fruit yield/plant (29.22 kg), yield (129.85 t/ha­-1), fruit length (20.49 cm), fruit diameter (18.21 cm) and quality parameters like maximum TSS (16.61 ºBrix) and acidity (0.125 %), non-reducing sugar (2.16 ºBrix), reducing sugar (7.83 ºBrix), total sugar (9.99 ºBrix) followed by T5 (GA3 150 ppm). The lowest observation was recorded in T0 (Control). Treatment with GA­3, NAA and CCC improved vegetative growth, yield and quality to a lesser extent as compared to the control. That’s why a positive response has to be seen in particular treatment during the research trial.