Effect of chemical mutagens on growth and flowering of chrysanthemum varieties in VM1 generation

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out at Department of Horticulture, Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth Parbhani. (Maharashtra) during kharif season of the year 2017-2018. The experiment was laid out in Factorial Randomised Block Design with thirty treatment combinations. The treatments comprised of two factors i.e. factor A and factor B. Factor A consist of 3 varieties (V1-Raja Pandharpuri,V2- Brown and V3-Shinaton) and factor B consist of 10 levels of chemical mutagen (colchicine T1 -0.01%, T2 -0.02%, T3 -0.03%, T4 - Ethylmethanesulphonate (EMS) 0.01%, T5 -0.05%, T6 -0.1%, T7 -0.5%, T8 -1.0%, T9 -1.5%,T10 – Control) in Chrysanthemum. The different treatments to rooted cuttings of chrysanthemum varieties with colchcine and EMS had significantly influenced the vegetative and flowering characters and also create the variability. Significant reduction occurs in both colchicine and EMS treated seedlings of chrysanthemum varieties in terms of plant height, branches plant-1, plant spread, Diameter of main stem and Number of leaves plant-1 Whereas leaf area and Petiole length was increased due to the colchicines and decreased due to EMS treated population of chrysanthemum varieties over control. The higher dose of colchicine and EMS delayed the flower bud initiation, flower opening and 50% flowering.