Effect of Plant Growth Retardants on Growth, Flowering and Yield of Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum Morifolium Ramat.) cv. IIHR-6

Abstract

The present experiment was conducted on chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat.) cv. IIHR-6 at Jambu Vadi Farm, College of Agriculture, JAU, Junagadh during winter season of 2013-14 under South Saurashtra agro climatic condition. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with Factorial concept with two time of spray viz., spray at 30 days after transplanting (S1) and spray at 60 days after transplanting (S2) and six treatment of plant growth retardants viz., MH 500 @ mg l-1 (P1), MH 700 @ mg l-1 (P2), CCC @ 2000 mg l-1 (P3), CCC @ 2500 mg l-1 (P4), PCB @ 0.4 ml l-1 (P5), PCB @ 0.5 ml l-1 (P6) were sprayed including control (P7). The effect of different time of sprays and plant growth retardants on growth, flowering and yield of chrysanthemum cv. ‘IIHR-6’ were found significant. The vigorous growth in terms of plant height at 90 DAT (52.65 cm) and at the time of final harvest (63.34 cm) was noticed the highest in control (P7) treatment while, the number of branches per plant at 90 DAT (28.80) and at the time of final harvest 34.89), plant spread in N - S (52.15 cm and 60.78 cm) and E - W direction (53.25 and 62.45 cm) at 90 DAT and at time of final harvest, respectively; fresh weight of plant (317.55 g) and dry weight of plant (35.87 g) recorded maximum under plant receiving MH @ 700 mg l-1 (P2). Consequently, these plants produced early flowers (70.94 days), took minimum days for 50 per cent flowering (101.16 days) with maximum flowering span (46.36 days), flower diameter (6.33 cm), shelf life (5.00 days) of flower as well as vase life (9.05 days) of flower. The yield of flowers (13.43 t ha -1) also produced maximum in these treatment. Interaction between different time of spray and plant growth retardants was found to be non significant in case of growth, flowering and yield of flowers, except diameters of flower. Economics of chrysanthemum indicated that the plant sprayed at 30 days after transplanting (S1) and treated with MH @ 700 mg l-1 (P2) found most remunerative as they gave highest net returns (Rs. 208980) with maximum Benefit Cost Ratio (1:4.50). It can be concluded that the foliar application of MH @ 700 mg l-1 at 30 days after transplanting proved superior in terms of growth, flowering, flower yield and more economical as compared to all other growth retardants treatments.