Foliar spray of gibberellic acid influences morphological attributes and foliage yield of coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.)

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at the research field of Sher-e- Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka during the period from December 1, 2016 to January 11, 2017 to investigate the effect of gibberellic acid (GA3) on vegetative growth, morphological attributes and foliage (leaf) yield of coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.). The experimental treatments consisted of eight different doses of GA3 viz., 0 (distilled water spray), 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 ppm. The variety Rosina (Pahuja Co., India) was used as planting material and different doses of GA3 were applied on the plants at 25 and 30 days after sowing. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. GA3 had significant effect on vegetative growth, morphology, foliage yield and yield contributing characters of coriander. Plant height, number of leaves plant-1, leaf length, plant spread and single plant weight were found maximum from the application of GA3 at 20 ppm, which was closely followed by 25 ppm GA3. Application of GA3 at 20 ppm produced the highest weight of foliage m-2. A strong positive correlation of foliage yield was observed with plant height, number of leaves plant-1, leaf length, plant spread, single plant weight and weight of foliage m-2. Application of GA3 at 20 ppm gave maximum foliage yield (9.34 t ha-1) which was followed by GA3 at 15 ppm (8.46 t ha-1) and 25 ppm (8.06 t ha-1), and the minimum foliage yield was recorded from control (distilled water spray) (4.90 t ha-1). Application of GA3 at 20 ppm increased foliage yield over control by 47.54 %. A quadratic relationship between applied GA3 concentration and foliage yield was found; the regression equation was y = 4.87 + 0.375x – 0.009x2 from which it came up to be optimum dose of GA3 as 20.83 ppm.Res. Agric., Livest. Fish.5(1): 1-9, April 2018