EFFECT OF PLANT GROWTH REGULATORS ON GROWTH, FLOWERING AND YIELD ATTRIBUTES OF AFRICAN MARIGOLD (TAGETES ERECTA L.)

An experiment was carried out during winter season of 2014 in Department of Fruit Science and Horticulture Technology, College of Agriculture, Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. The experiment was conducted in randomized block design with ten treatments comprising of three levels each of Gibberellic Acid (25, 50, 100 ppm ), Ethrel (25, 50, 100ppm) and Naphthalene Acetic Acid (25, 50, 100 ppm) replicated thrice to evaluate the effect of these plant growth regulators on growth, flowering and yield characters in African marigold. The observed vegetative traits like plant height, numbers of branches per plant, number of leaves per plant and plant girth and different flowering as well as yield attributing traits like early flower bud initiation, opening of first flower and maximum duration of flowering, flower stalk length, number of flowers per plant, weight of flower, weight of flowers per plant and flower yield per plant were found to be maximum from the treatment Gibberellic Acid @100 ppm as compared to other treatments.