Response of plant growth regulators and trace elements on growth, flowering and yield of bottle gourd cv. GH 22

In the present experiment three levels each of plant growthregulators (NAA, GA3, Ethrel) and trace elements (ZnSO4,MnSO4, Boric acid), respectively, were sprayed at secondand fourth leaves stage along with control treatment onbottle gourd plants to find out their effect on fruit yield. Thestudy was conducted at Research Farm of the Departmentof Vegetable Science, CCS, Haryana Agricultural University,Hisar during Spring summer season of 2017-18. The resultsof the study clearly indicated that application of Ethrel 200ppm significantly increased the fruit yield and its relatedattributes over control treatment. The spraying of Ethrel200 ppm significantly reduced the length of internodes (11.7cm), node number to bear first female (7.3), number ofstaminate flowers per plant (104.3), length of internodes(11.7) as well as main vine length (357.2 cm) whereas itincreases number of primary branches /vine (17.7), thenumbers of pistillate flower per plant (17.0), longest fruitlength & diameter (32.9; 7.5 cm), length of pedicel (15.9 cm),number of fruits per vine (7.7) and fruit yield per plot and perhectare (30.1 kg and 361.1 q), respectively. Whereas, thespray of GA3 75 ppm delayed the node number to bear firstfemale flower (15.3) and increased the number of staminateflowers per plant (145.7) and length of internodes & mainvine length (16.7 and 487 cm) as well as it decreased thenumber of pistillate flowers per vine (9.3) and fruit yield perplot and per hectare (19.8 kg, 237.6 q). The highest nodenumber to bear first male flower (13.3) and maximum numberof days to opening of first male flower (54.7) were recordedin treatment NAA 300 ppm. From the study, it was concludedthat bottle gourd plants of cv. GH-22 when sprayed withEthrel 200 ppm produced the maximum fruit yield (361.1q/ha).