Effect of Pinching on Growth, Flowering, and Yield of African Marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) cv. Calcutta Local

The field was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with 5 treatments (T1-no pinching, T2-pinching at 10 DAT, T3-pinching at 20 DAT, T4-pinching at 30 DAT and T5- pinching at 40 DAT) and four replications. Five plants were randomly selected from each treatment to record growth, flowering parameters and economics of marigold cultivation. Among the treatments, T1 (no pinching) recorded the maximum plant height (89.05cm), earliest bud initiation (29.75 days), earliest appearance of first flower (40.25 days) and minimum days to 50% flowering (50 days). Similarly, maximum flower diameter (5.53 g), maximum fresh weight (5.08 g) and maximum dry weight of flower (2.11 g) was also recorded with this treatment. Further, the maximum number of primary branches per plant (19.25), secondary branches per plant (46.25), plant spread (59.20 cm) and maximum number of flowers (124.96), flower yield per plant (549.9 g), flower yield per plot (8.25 kg) and total flower yield (229.14 q/ha) were recorded at T5 (pinching at 40DAT). Hence, it can be concluded that pinching at 40 DAT is the most effective practice for yield and number of flowers and no-pinching can be recommended if early and big sized flowers are required.