Influence of foliar application of Gibberellic acid on growth, development, yield and biochemical constituents of African marigold cv. ‘Pusa Narangi Gainda’

Abstract

An experiment was carried out on African marigold cv. ‘Pusa Narangi Gainda’ to study the influence of foliar application of Gibberellic acid (GA3) on growth, development, yield and biochemical constituents at UBKV, West Bengal. The treatments consist of ten different concentrations of GA3 with a control. GA3 treatment at 250 ppm resulted in significantly better performance in relation to plant height (87.87cm), number of branches (13.37), number of leaves (36.01), plant spread (40.92 cm), whole biomass (447.10 g), fresh shoot weight (355.69 g), fresh root weight (92.10 g), days to flower bud initiation (52.93 days), flower longevity on plants (6.67 days), duration of flowering (24.4 days), number of flowers/ plant (53.12), diameter of flowers (6.79 cm) and expected flower yield (52.28 MT/ha). The same treatment was also effective in improving biochemical constituents like leaf chlorophyll content (54.60 SPAD), protein content (1390.5 µg/g), carotenoids (370.8 mg/Kg), carbohydrate (288.9µg/g), reducing sugar content (146.1µg/g) and non-reducing sugar content (142.8 µg/g) in petals.