Effect of different plant growth regulators on growth, yield and quality parameters of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) cv. Kalyanpur green

Abstract

An investigation was carried out at the Vegetable Research farm, Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur during Kharif season of 2018. The soil of the experimental field was sandy-loam with uniform topography. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design replicated thrice with nine treatments i.e. T1 - foliar application of GA3 (100ppm) at 15 days after sowing, T2 - foliar application of GA3 (150ppm) at 30days after sowing, T3 - foliar application of GA3 (200ppm) at 45days after sowing, T4 - foliar application of NAA (100ppm) at 15days after sowing, T5 - foliar application of NAA (150ppm) at 30days after sowing, T6 - foliar application of NAA (200ppm) at 45 days after sowing, T7 - foliar application of Ethrel (200ppm) at 2-4 leaf stage, T8 - foliar application of Ethrel (300ppm) at pre flowering and T9 - Control (Water Spray). The result shows that an application of Ethrel 200ppm was found most effective in reducing the number of male flowers (90.75) in comparison to female flowers (52.08). GA3 200ppm reduce the number of days required for appearance of first flower (36.58 days) of cucumber plant, increased the production of female flowers (50.25), lowered the male and female sex ratio (1.70: 1), increased number of fruits per plant (11.67), increased yield per plant (3.89 kg) and per hectare (180.69 q). The next best treatment was GA3 100 ppm which increased the yield of fruits per plant (3.42 kg) and yield per hectare. From the results of this investigation, it could be inferred that Ethrel 200 ppm treatment was found most effective in improving femaleness with increased fruit yield of cucumber cv. Kalyanpur Green'. Results revealed that the application of plant growth regulators significantly increased growth. GA3 (100ppm) play an important role in increasing yield characters followed by NAA (100 ppm) and male and female flower ratio can be lowered by the application Ethrel (300 ppm). The fruit set and fruit retention percentage was improved through the application GA3 (150ppm) followed by GA3 (200ppm).