Impact of tropospheric ozone on growth and yield of garlic in high altitude region of Western Ghats

Abstract

A pot culture experiment was conducted in TNAU- Climate Change Observatory, Woodhouse Farm, Horticultural Research Farm, Ooty during September-January of 2018-19 with the objectives of quantifying the garlic yield loss due to tropospheric ozone and identifying better ozone protectant for sustaining the garlic production against ozone. Twelve different treatments with Factorial Complete Block Design with three replications were tested on local garlic variety. Accordingly, most of the growth and yield parameters were significantly affected by higher levels of ozone where the treatment with ambient ozone exposure with ozone protectants was inferior in all parameters. Significantly the highest plant height (50.33 cm), fresh above ground biomass (23.10 gm), diameter of garlic (3.46 cm) and garlic yield (8.15 gm) were recorded on garlic plants in the ambient ozone exposure with 3% panchagavya treatment followed by ambient ozone exposure with 3% neem oil and ambient ozone exposure with 0.1% ascorbic acid treatments. The elevated ozone exposure treatments significantly decline the growth and yield parameters of garlic. From the results it implies that increase in the concentration of tropospheric ozone causes harmful effects on yield and growth of garlic whereby ozone protectants plays a major role by scavenging the O3 in garlic.