Response of pinching and growth regulators on African marigold cv. Pusa Basanti Gainda under mid hill conditions of Uttarakhand

A field experiment was carried out to evaluate response of pinching and growth regulators on growth and yield of African marigold cv. Pusa Basanti Gainda under mid hill conditions of Uttarakhand. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design (Factorial) with sixteen treatment combination consisting of eight growth regulators viz. CCC @ 750, 1000 ppm, GA3 @ 125, 250 ppm, NAA @ 25, 50 ppm, Ethrel @ 750, 1000 ppm and each concentration tried on pinched and non pinched plants. The results revealed that pinching significantly influenced several vegetative parameters like plant spread (52.14 cm), number of leaves per plant (363.24) and leaf area per plant (90.45 cm2). Pinching delayed some floral attributes like first flower bud initiation (69.93 days), first flowering (79.23 days). Among growth regulators GA3 @ 250 ppm significantly improved several characters like plant height (92.80 cm), plant spread (54.77 cm), number of leaves per plant (399.33), number of flowers pr plant (62.85), maximum flower yield per plant (359.50 g), longest shelf life of loose flower (9.47 days), except stem diameter (2.18 cm) which was found maximum with application of CCC @ 1000 ppm.