Analysis of vegetative growth by spraying of forchlorfenuron and N-acetyl thiazolidine 4-carboxylic acid on of apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) cv. New Castle

Abstract

Being the third important stone fruit crops of India, apricot still requires a great improvisation in production point of view. Bio-regulators are being used by the growers to increase the yield by improving the yield attribute parameters. Keeping the objective to increase the yield, in the recent studies; twenty six-year-old apricot cv. New Castle trees were subjected to 11 treatments viz. Forchlorfenuron (CPPU) at 5 and 10 ppm and N-acetyl thiazolidine 4-carboxylic acid (NATCA) at 50 and 100 ppm and their combinations were applied at pink bud and petal fall stage during the year 2015 and 2016. The experiment was laid out in completely randomized block design with three replications in the experimental fruit orchard of Department of Fruit Science, Dr YSPUHF, Nauni, Solan. Out of the two time of spray the petal fall stage was found to be superior in both the years. Foliar spray of CPPU at 10 ppm increased the vegetative character like annual shoot growth (61.66 cm), trunk girth (5.38 %) and leaf area (32.42 cm2) over control. However an increase the chlorophyll content of leaves (2.61 mg/g fresh weight) was noticed by NATCA (100 ppm) at petal fall stage.