Studies on the Effect of Plant Growth Regulators on Vegetative Growth, Flowering, Yield and Shelf Life of the Marigold Cv. Siracole

The present experiment entitled “Effect of plant gro wth regulators on vegetative growth, flowering, yie ld and shelf life of the Marigold cv. Siracole” was carried out during 2016-2017 at BCT Krishi Vigyan Kendram, Harip uram, Visakhapatnam district. The experiment was designed to study the effect of plant growth regulators nam ely GA3 at 50 ppm, 100 ppm, 150 ppm and NAA at 150 ppm, 200 ppm, 250 p pm on vegetative growth, flowering, yield, and shel f life of marigold with 7 treatments in three replications in a random ized block design. The treatment GA 3 150 ppm recorded maximum values for plant height (50.71cm, 74.57 cm), number of bra nches (15.59, 19.45) over other treatments after 60 and 90 days after transplanting. Control resulted in the minimum numb er of branches per plant (10.4,13.3), plant height (46.6cm, 58.5 cm) over other treatments. Among the floral parameters, minimum number of days to first floret appear (44. 25days), and 50 percent flowering (58.37days), number of flowers pe r plant (72.81), flower size (21.58 cm), flower wei ght (10.7 g), flower yield per plant (524.6 g), per hectare (26.33MT) an d shelf life (3.55days) was recorded with GA 3 150 ppm. Minimum flower size (19.6 cm) and minimum flower weight (7.3g), ma ximum number of days to first floret appear (53.18 days), maximum 50 percent flowering (71.3 days), minimum number of fl owers per plant (29.49), minimum flower yield per p lant (335.3 g), per hectare (16.6 MT) and shelf life (3.1days) was recor ded with control. GA3 100 ppm (46.41 days) and NAA 250 ppm (46.48) are on par with each other at first flower initiati on. It was found that GA3 at 150 ppm was recorded better results for growth, flowering, yield and shelf life of marigold cv. Sir acole.