Impact of plant growth regulators on yield and yield attributing characters in pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) cv. Bhagwa in Satpura plateau region of Madhya Pradesh

Abstract

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is one of the famous table fruits mainly cultivated in tropical and sub-tropical eco-system. It is a newly introduced as alternate commercial fruit crop against Nagpur mandarin in Chhindwara district of Satpura plateau region of M.P. during 2012. One of the major problems under this condition is that cv. Bhagwa exhibits heavy flowering and fruit drop by increasing the fruit set and fruit retention. Plant growth regulators are reported to play a significant role in pomegranate (Chaudhari and Desai, 1993). Hence, an attempt has been made to find suitable growth regulators and their doses for improving fruit set and yield in pomegranate cv. Bhagwa under Satpura plateau region. The experiment was conducted on pomegranate orchard at JNKVV, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Chhindwara (M.P.) India during Ambia crop (Jan-Feb) 2018 on 6-year old Bhagwa planted at a spacing of 12 x 8 ft. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with four replications, and two plants per replication. There were seven treatments with three growth regulators, viz., NAA at 10, 15 ppm; GA3 at 10, 15 ppm and 2,4-D at 10, 15 ppm and control were sprayed three times starting at 50% flowering stage and, subsequently, at 20 days’ interval. The parameters like average weight of fruit, number of fruits/tree and yield per plant and yield MT/ha. were significantly influenced by the application of plant growth regulators at various intervals. Results revealed that application of NAA at 15 ppm gave significantly high fruit set which resulted in highest fruit yield of 10.5 kg/plant at the age of 6 years, as against 5.21 kg in the control. Fruit weight and quality improved significantly due to growth regulator sprays.