Subscriber's/Author' CopyNot For Commercial Use International Rating Index Copernicus Value (ICV:4.79), Poland Volume 2 (1) Jan.-March 2013 Indexed/Abstracted in : Date of Publication : 10-3-2013 • Indian Science Abstracts • CAB Abstracts • CABI Full text • CAB direct • ICRISAT-infoSAT • Google Scholar • AgBiotech Net • Horticultural Science Abstracts • Forestry & Agroforestry Abstracts • Agric. Engg. Abstracts • Crop Physiology Abstracts • PGRs Abstracts Subscriber's/Author's Copy Not For Commercial Use International Rating Index Copernicus Value (ICV:4.79), Poland HORTFLORA RESEARCH SPECTRUM ISSN : 2250-2823 Volume 2(1), January-March, 2013 Contents 1. Effect of in-situ moisture conservation on plant growth and nutrient uptake in aonla (Emblica officinalis Gaertn) in sloppy degraded lands R.S. Negi, B.S. Baghel, A.K. Gupta and Y.K. Singh 1-7 2. Response of cauliflower growth and development under water scarcity conditions in temperature zone P.S. Kashyap 8-13 3. Production and marketing of Mushroom in Kanpur Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh B.S. Sachan, Keshvendra Singh, Neeraj Kumar and Jitendra Kumar 14-19 4. Changes in baking and sensory properties of wheat bread and muffins with the addition of grapes Suresh Bhise, Amarjeet Kaur and Poonam Aggarwal 20-24 5. Effect of gibberellic acid on periodical changes in bio-chemical composition of ber cv. Umran Rachna and Sukhdev Singh 25-29 6. Effct of IBA concentration on inducing rooting in stem cuttings of Thuja compecta under mist house condition K.K. Singh, J.M.S. Rawat, Y.K. Tomar and Prabhat Kumar 30-34 7. Effect of some indigenous plant extracts on the inhibition of egg hatching of nematode Melodiogyne incognita Chitwood infesting mulbery N. Vijaya Kumari and M. Lakshmi Devi 35-39 8. Influence of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers with nitrogen sources on floral parameters of tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa L.) A.P.S. Gangwar, J.P. Singh and Indra Pal Singh 40-44 9. Effect of low poly-tunnel on the growth, yield and harvesting span of sweet pepper Kulbir Singh, Rajinder Singh, D.S. Khurana and Jaswinder Singh 45-49 10. Performance of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) hybrids in agro-climatic conditions of Allahabad Jitendra Kumar Patel, Vijay Bahadur, Devi Singh, V.M. Prasad and S.B. Rangare 50-55 11. Varietal reaction of rose against black spot caused by Diplocarpon rosae Wolf. in Arunachal Pradesh Sunil Kumar, R.C. Shakywar, K.S. Tomar and M. Pathak 56-59 12. Effect of graded levels of nitrogen on production of flower, oil and bulb of tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa L.) Avinash C. Rathore and J.N. Singh 60-63 13. Response of organic manures on growth and yield of mango (Mangifera indica L.) cv. Dashehari Mohit Kumar and Rajesh Kumar 64-67 14. Effect of different packaging films on shelf life and quality of pear fruits under super market conditions B.V.C. Mahajan, Nav Prem Singh and Mahesh Kumar 68-71 15. Review on biological control of soil borne fungi in vegetable crops Ramesh Singh and N.S. Sachan 72-76 16. Effect of micronutrients and plant growth regulators on fruiting of Litchi Amit Dixit, S.S. Shaw and Virendra Pal 77-80 17. Effect of IBA and NAA concentrations on rooting in stem cuttings of night queen (Cestrum nocturnum L.) under sub-tropical valley conditions K.K. Singh, V. Rawat, J.M.S. Rawat, Y.K. Tomar and Prabhat Kumar 81-83 18. Performance of Cabbage hybrids under rainfed mid-hill conditions of Uttarakhand Sanjay Pathak, Chandan Kumar, S.P. Uniyal and Lalit Bhatt 84-86 19. Impact of micronutrient spray on growth, yield and quality of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) H.M. Singh and Jitendra Kumar Tiwari 87-89 20. Effect of natural and chemical floral preservatives on the vase life of Dendrobium hybrid sonia-17 Prathamesh Vaidya and John P. Collis 90-92 EF FECT OF IN-SITU MOIS TURE CON SER VA TION ON PLANT GROWTH AND NU TRI ENT UP TAKE IN AONLA (Emblica officinalis Gaertn) IN SLOPPY DE GRADED LANDS R.S. Negi 1 , B.S. Baghel 2 , A.K. Gupta 3* and Y.K. Singh 4 1 Deendayal Re search In sti tute, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Satna (MP)-485 331 2 Col lege of Hor ti cul ture, JNKVV, Mandsour (MP) 3,4 Mahatma Gan dhi Chitrakoot Gramodaya Vishwavidyalaya, Chitrakoot. *Email :
[email protected] AB STRACT: A field ex per i ment was con ducted in Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Deendayal Re search In sti tute, Satna for two con sec u tive years to eval u ate the ef fect of var i ous in- situ mois ture con ser va tion mea sures on es tab lish ment and growth of aonla in sloppy de graded lands. In-situ mois ture con ser va tion mea sures in cluded for the study were prep a ra tion of cir cu lar ring ba sin + mulch ing the ba sin with black poly thene, stag gered con tour trench ing 45 cm width and 3 m length) on up per side of the plant ba sin, place ment of one sub merged pitcher in one side of the plant for rain wa ter har vest ing, set ting the seed ling in a de pres sion of 1 m width and 15 cm deep, sur rounded by a ring-shaped ridge with 25 cm width and 15 cm height and a 30 cm open ing on the higher side to har vest rain wa ter + fill ing the de pres sion with straw + mulch ing with black poly thene and con trol (no mi cro- catch ment or mulch). The data on growth pa ram e ters (scion shoot length and di am e ter; num ber of branchlet, num ber of leaves, leaf area, fresh and dry weight of shoots and roots) and nu tri ent con tent of leaves of budlings un der the five treat ments were re corded. The re sults re vealed that plant ing one month old poly thene raised seed lings in a pit de pres sion of 1 m width and 15 cm deep, sur rounded by a ring-shaped ridge with 25 cm width and 15 cm height and a 30 cm open ing on the higher side to har vest rain wa ter and fill ing the de pres sion with straw and cov er ing the pit with black poly thene and per form ing patch bud ding next year dur ing end of June, which re sulted in max i mum budling growth, and nu tri ents up take ob served to be the best in situ mois ture con ser va tion method and may be rec om mended for re ha bil i ta tion of de graded sloppy lands. Keywords: Aonla, in-situ mois ture con ser va tion, trench ing, sub merged pitcher, nu tri ent up take. Aonla, on ac count of its drought har di ness and wider adapt abil ity ap pear to be a better choice for re ha bil i tat ing waste lands (Singh, 11). This mi nor fruits has bright pros pects for ex tend ing its cul ti va tion in waste/forestlands where the cul ti va tion of other crops is ar du ous and less prof it able. Dur ing the re cent years, this crop is fast gain ing ground on ac count of its drought har di ness, high me dic i nal and nu tri tional value, non-per ish able na ture of the fruit, readily avail able mar ket and high re mu ner a tion. Due to its in creas ing de mand in Ayurvedic med i cines, an ex pan sion of the area un der its cul ti va tion has be come nec es sary to meet the de mands of phar ma ceu ti cal com pa nies. Keep ing in view the di verse me dic i nal use of aonla and its in creas ing com mer cial sig nif i cance in the coun try, there is an ur gent need to give im me di ate at ten tion to wards prob lems and pros pects in its cul ti va tion. How ever, the great est bot tle neck in its ex pan sion is the poor sur viv abil ity and growth of plants on waste lands. The poor es tab lish ment and growth of plants af ter trans plant ing is a ma jor prob lem in the ex pan sion of area un der cul ti va tion as heavy mor tal ity (up to 50 %) oc curs af ter trans plant ing from nurs ery to field at dis tant places. Al though, aonla is a drought hardy fruit crop, yet the plants re quire wa ter ing dur ing the ini tial stage of or chard es tab lish ment (Pareek, 9). But pro vid ing regular ir ri ga tion is nei ther regular prac ti cal nor eco nom i cal in the sloppy waste lands. Har vest ing of rain wa ter and in-situ mois ture con ser va tion is the only vi a ble al ter na tive to ar ti fi cial ir ri ga tion. Sci en tific in for ma tion to es tab lish a stan dard method of rain wa ter har vest ing tech nol ogy for HortFlora Research Spectrum, 2(1): 1-7 (Jan.-March 2013) ISSN : 2250-2823 Received : 16.9.2012 Accepted : 24.11.2012 2 Negi et al. aonla is in ad e quate, especially for the sloppy lands. Therefore, an experiment was laid out to study the effect of different models of rain water harvesting on plant survival and growth ratios. MA TE RI ALS AND METH ODS The ex per i ment was con ducted dur ing 2005-06 and 2006-07 at Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Satna on sloppy waste lands with five in-situ mois ture con ser va tion meth ods. The ex per i men tal site lies be tween 24° 51' 15" to 24° 57' 30" N lat i tude and 80° 43' 30" to 80° 54' 15" E lon gi tude. The an nual rain fall of the ex per i men tal area var ies from 600 mm to 850 mm. July to Sep tem ber are the wet test months ac count ing for about 80% of the to tal pre cip i ta tion in the area. Tem per a ture rises to 45-48°C in May and falls to 3-5°C dur ing De cem ber/Jan u ary. The soil of the ex per i men tal site was stony, grav elly and the gravel con tent of the soil var ied from 46-58%. The ex per i ment was laid out in a Ran dom ized Block De sign with three rep li ca tions and 20 plants in each rep li ca tion. The ex per i ment site was cleared off all the shrubs/bushes in the month of May dur ing both the years. Pits of 90 x 90 x 90 cu. m. size were dug out dur ing May. The pits were filled with a mix ture of good soil and FYM in the ra tio of 1:1. Ex per i ment was laid out in a tri an gu lar sys tem at a plant ing dis tance of 5x5m. One month old seed lings raised in poly bags were trans planted in pits sub jected to dif fer ent in-situ mois ture con ser va tion mea sures with the on set of mon soon dur ing 2005 and 2006. Un der each rep li ca tion, out of 20 trans planted seed lings, 10 seed lings were patch bud ded with NA-7 dur ing the last week of June in the fol low ing year i.e. 2006 and 2007. For tak ing ob ser va tions on growth pa ram e ters and nu tri ent con tent of leaves, five plants in each rep li ca tion were marked per ma nently. The data on length and di am e ter of scion shoot; num ber of branch lets and num ber of leaves were re corded at monthly in ter val af ter 45 days of bud ding till the ces sa tion of growth took place. The height was mea sured from the bud un ion to the ter mi nal bud of the main axis. Whereas, the di am e ter was mea sures just above the bud un ion with the help of ver nier cal li per. The data on num ber of branch lets were re corded dur ing Sep tem ber. The leaf area was re corded dur ing Oc to ber. Ten leaves were col lected at ran dom from each bud ding, and out of the pooled leaves, ten leaves were fur ther se lected at ran dom for mea sur ing the leaf area. The leaf area was mea sured with the help of LICOR 6100 Leaf Area Me ter and ex pressed in cm2. The ob ser va tions on fresh shoot and root weights were re corded dur ing De cem ber, at the end of grow ing sea son. The plants were dug out care fully with out dis turb ing the pri mary roots and were washed in wa ter. The stem por tions and Ta ble 1: Treat ment de tails and spec i fi ca tion of in-situ mois ture con ser va tion mea sures. Treatments Specifications T 1 : Polythene mulching Preparation of circular ring, and mulching the basin with black polythene. T 2 : Trench + straw mulching Staggered trenches of 3m length, 0.45 m width and depth across the slope were prepared in a aligned contour. Half of the trench was filled with straw and the plants were planted on the downstream side of the trench bund. T 3 : Submerged pitcher Placement of one submerged pitcher on upper side of the plant for rainwater harvesting. T 4 : Pit depression Seedlings were set in a depression of 1 m width and 15 cm depth, surrounded by a ring-shaped ridge with 25 cm width and 15 cm height and a 30 cm opening on the higher side to harvest rainwater. The depression was filled with straw and covered with black polythene as mulch. T 5 : Control Control (no micro-catchments and no mulch). root por tions were sev ered from the point of tran si tion of shoot and root. The weight was mea sured with the help of an elec tronic bal ance and ex pressed as av er age weight of root and shoot in gm. Af ter re cord ing fresh weight, the roots and shoots por tions were dried in an elec tric oven at 65°C for 72 hours. For de ter min ing the dry weight, shoot and root por tions were weighed in an elec tronic bal ance and the data ex pressed as av er age weight of root and shoot in gm. For cal cu lat ing the nu tri ent con tent in leaves, the phys i o log i cally ma ture leaves (3-4 months old) from the mid dle por tion of shoots were col lected (Awasthi et al., 1). The leaves were washed and dried in the elec tric oven at 65°C till a con stant weight was ob tained. The sam ples were then grounded and an a lyzed for ni tro gen, phos pho rus and po tas sium con tents and the data ex pressed in per cent. The ni tro gen con tent in the leaves was de ter mined by Kjeltec N- autoanalyzer as ad vo cated by Singh et al. (11). The phos pho rus con tent in the leaves was de ter mined by wet di ges tion method de vel op ing vanadomolybdo col our as sug gested by Singh et al. (10). The potassium content in the leaves was estimated by wet digestion with the help of a flame photometer as described by Jackson (7). RE SULTS AND DIS CUS SION Budlings Growth The data on the ef fect of dif fer ent mois ture con ser va tion meth ods on length of scion shoot, di am e ter of scion shoot just above the graft un ion and num ber of branch lets per bud ding are pre sented in Table 2. Sev eral work ers have dem on strated the ben e fi cial ef fects of in-situ mois ture con ser va tion meth ods on plants growth (Ghosh et. al., 5; Badhe and Magar, 2) in aonla. In the pres ent stud ies also, all the treat ments were ob served to en hance the growth of budlings in terms of length of scion shoot, di am e ter of scion shoot just above the graft un ion, and num ber of branch lets per budling. The max i mum length of scion shoot (40.70 cm), di am e ter just above the bud un ion (0.58 cm), and num ber of branch lets (21.25), was re corded in budlings grow ing in pit de pres sion method of in-situ mois ture con ser va tion. The next best treat ments in re spect of growth were stag gered trench + straw mulch ing (38.78 cm, 0.56 cm, 18.75) and sub merged pitcher (37.47 cm, 0.52 cm and 17.50) meth ods of wa ter har vest ing. The treat ment of mulch ing with black poly thene re corded the mean min i mum val ues of growth parameters (32.56 cm, 0.45 cm, 16.17 branches). In creased growth of budlings un der in-situ mois ture con ser va tion treat ments might have been due to more mois ture and nu tri ents avail able in the soil dur ing the ac tive growth pe riod. Thus in the pres ent study, pit de pres sion method of mois ture con ser va tion was ob served to be a more ef fec tive method for en hanc ing budlings growth. The higher growth of budlings un der the pit de pres sion method of mois ture con ser va tion may be at trib uted to higher avail able soil mois ture for lon ger pe ri ods Effect of in-situ moisture conservation on plant growth and nutrient uptake in aonla 3 Ta ble 2: Ef fect of in-situ mois ture con ser va tion meth ods on growth of Aonla budlings. Treatment Scion shoot length (cm) Scion shoot diameter (cm) No. of Branchlets/ budling 2006 2007 Mean 2006 2007 Mean 2006 2007 Mean T 1 : Polythene mulching 31.51 33.60 32.56 0.43 0.46 0.45 16.00 16.33 16.17 T 2 : Trench + straw mulching 38.14 39.41 38.78 0.54 0.57 0.56 18.67 18.83 18.75 T 3 : Submerged pitcher 37.33 37.62 37.47 0.51 0.53 0.52 17.25 17.75 17.50 T 4 : Pit depression 38.92 42.47 40.70 0.56 0.59 0.58 20.58 21.92 21.25 T 5 : Control 28.31 28.94 28.63 0.39 0.41 0.40 14.67 14.91 14.79 CD (P=0.05) 1.97 3.17 2.42 0.03 0.04 0.04 1.72 2.10 1.84 4 Negi et al. due to a big ger mi cro-catch ments area, and better mois ture con ser va tion through com bined mulch ing of straw and poly thene. These re sults are in con for mity with the find ings of Ghosh et. al. (5 ) who also re corded better growth of the plants in cus tard ap ple un der pit de pres sion method of mois ture con ser va tion.The trend ob served in in crease in all the growth pa ram e ters as in flu enced by dif fer ent mois ture conservation methods was almost similar during 2006 as well as 2007. No. of Leaves and Leaf Area The data on the ef fect of dif fer ent in-situ mois ture con ser va tion treat ments on leaf num ber and leaf area are pre sented in Ta ble 3. A pe rusal of the data re veals that all the in-situ mois ture con ser va tion treat ments re sulted in sig nif i cant in crease in leaf num ber and leaf area over con trol dur ing the year 2006 and 2007 as well as when pooled anal y sis of vari ance was car ried out. Among the dif fer ent in-situ mois ture con ser va tion treat ments, the max i mum leaf num ber and leaf area was ob tained un der pit de pres sion treat ment (611.96, 0.48 cm 2 ), which was sig nif i cantly higher than other treat ments. The next best treat ment was found to be stag gered trench + straw mulch ing (503.37, 0.46 cm 2 ). The treat ment poly thene mulch ing re corded the low est val ues (442.11, 0.36 cm 2 ). Fresh Weight of Shoot and Root The data on the ef fect of dif fer ent in-situ mois ture con ser va tion meth ods on fresh shoot and root weight and dry shoot and root weight (Ta ble 4) re veals that dif fer ent in-situ mois ture con ser va - tion treat ments had a sig nif i cant ef fect on fresh shoot and root weight. The mean fresh weight of shoot and root per plant ranged be tween 16.35 g to 23.14 g, and 16.28 g to 22.07 g re spec tively. The mean max i mum fresh weight of shoot and root (23.14 g and 22.07 g) was re corded with budlings raised un der pit de pres sion method of mois ture con ser va tion which was sig nif i cantly higher than all the other treat ments, ex cept stag gered trench + straw mulch ing. The low est mean fresh shoot and root weight (16.35 g and 16.28 g) was re corded un der con trol, which was sig nif i cantly lower than all other treatments. Dry Weight of Shoot and Root The mean dry shoot and root weight of budlings ranged be tween 7.33 g to 10.40 g, and 8.30 g to 11.80 g, re spec tively. All the treat ments were ob served to in crease the dry shoot and root weight sig nif i cantly over the con trol. Among the dif fer ent treat ments, the mean max i mum dry shoot and root weight was re corded un der pit de pres sion (10.40 g and 11.80 g). The sec ond high est val ues (9.93 g and 11.25 g) of dry shoot and root weights were ob served un der stag gered trench + straw mulch ing treat ment, but were sta tis ti cally at par with pit de pres sion and sub merged pitcher method of mois ture con ser va tion. Fur ther more, the dry weight of shoot and root was ob served to fol low the same pat tern as fresh weight in re spect of the ef fect of in-situ moisture conservation methods. Ta ble 3: Ef fect of in-situ moisture conservation methods on num ber of leaves and leaf area of Aonla budlings. Treatment Number of Leaves Leaf Area (cm 2 ) 2006 2007 Mean 2006 2007 Mean T 1 : Polythene mulching 446.63 437.60 442.11 0.36 0.35 0.36 T 2 : Trench + straw mulching 505.59 501.16 503.37 0.47 0.44 0.46 T 3 : Submerged pitcher 505.73 491.63 498.68 0.43 0.39 0.41 T 4 : Plant set in depression 631.15 592.78 611.96 0.49 0.46 0.48 T 5 : Control 383.25 376.89 380.07 0.33 0.31 0.32 CD (P=0.05) 57.41 47.05 50.34 0.03 0.05 0.02 The in crease in the dry and fresh mat ter con tent of shoots and roots un der mois ture con ser va tion treat ments could be at trib uted to the better sap flow, nu tri ent up take and their di rec tional flow, as the treat ment which pro duced higher dry and fresh weight of shoots, also re corded higher con tent of NPK in leaves. Nu tri ent Up take The data per tain ing to the ef fect of dif fer ent meth ods of in-situ mois ture con ser va tion on nu tri ent con tent of leaves (Ta ble 5) revealed that all the mois ture con ser va tion treat ments sig nif i cantly im proved the nu tri ent up take of the roots. The dif fer ent in-situ mois ture con ser va tion treat ments re sulted in a sig nif i cant in crease in NPK con tent of the leaves over the con trol. Among the dif fer ent meth ods of in-situ mois ture con ser va tion, the pit de pres sion method of rain wa ter har vest ing, along with black poly thene mulch ing proved to be the most ben e fi cial for in creas ing the NPK con tent of leaves and. gave the high est val ues of NPK con tent (2.36, 0.27, 1.41 per cent) in leaves. The next best treat ments, in re spect of leaves NPK con tent were stag gered trench (2.22, 0.24, 1.39 per cent) and sub merged pitcher (2.07 per cent). Whereas, the low est NPK con tent was re corded un der poly thene mulch ing treat ment (1.74, 0.20, 1.21 per cent). Chandra (4) also re ported that mois ture con ser va tion tech niques in crease the nu tri ent con tent of leaves in aonla. He ad vo cated that the nu tri ent move into the wet vol ume in a man ner con sis tent with the flux of wa ter in the soil, thereby en sur ing ad e quate avail abil ity to plants. Fur ther more, the N, P and K con tent of leaves was ob served to fol low the same pat tern in re spect of the ef fect of in-situ moisture conservation methods on nutrient content of leaves. The better nu tri ent up take un der in-situ mois ture con ser va tion treat ments may be due to en hanced avail abil ity of nu tri ents and mois ture in soil for lon ger du ra tion and the higher con tent of NPK in leaves may be at trib uted to in creased avail abil ity of soil mois ture which might have fa cil i tated higher up take of nu tri ent and es tab lish ment of better soil-water-air relationship. In the pres ent in ves ti ga tions, mulch was found more ef fec tive in in creas ing seed ling as well budlings growth (height, di am e ter, num ber of leaves and branch less, fresh and dry weight of root and shoot), when used in com bi na tion with in-situ rain wa ter har vest ing mod ule, as com pared to when used alone. The ben e fi cial ef fect of black poly thene and straw mulch ing on plant growth has also been re ported in guava (Borthakur and Bhattacharya, 3). Higher growth of aonla plants un der dif fer ent in-situ mois ture con ser va tion treat ments can be at trib uted to the better mois ture con ser va tion for Effect of in-situ moisture conservation on plant growth and nutrient uptake in aonla 5 Ta ble 4: Ef fect of in-situ moisture conservation methods on fresh and dry weight of shoot and root in Aonla. Treatment Shoot Fresh Weight (g) Root Fresh Weight (g) Shoot Dry Weight (g) Root Dry Weight (g) 2006 2007 Mea n 2006 2007 Mea n 2006 2007 Mea n 2006 2007 Mea n T 1 : Polythene mulching 18.84 20.09 19.47 17.93 19.11 18.52 8.07 8.61 8.34 9.14 9.75 9.44 T 2 : Trench + straw mulching 21.80 22.53 22.17 21.56 22.28 21.92 9.77 10.10 9.93 11.06 11.43 11.25 T 3 : Submerged pitcher 21.33 21.49 21.41 21.24 21.40 21.32 9.56 9.63 9.60 10.83 10.91 10.87 T 4 : Pit depression 22.12 24.16 23.14 21.17 22.97 22.07 9.97 10.83 10.40 11.29 12.32 11.80 T 5 : Control 16.17 16.52 16.35 16.11 16.46 16.28 7.25 7.41 7.33 8.21 8.39 8.30 CD(P=0.05) 2.01 1.98 1.68 2.11 1.76 1.37 0.95 0.90 0.75 1.01 1.00 0.62 6 Negi et al. lon ger pe riod of growth, which im proved the nu tri ent up take by the plant. These re sults con forms the find ings of sev eral work ers, who also re ported en hanced growth of fruit plants due to better con ser va tion of soil moisture fol low ing mulch ing (Hegde and Srinivas, 6; Mishra, 8). CON CLU SION From the re sults of these stud ies, it may be in ferred that in-situ mois ture con ser va tion is a must for better es tab lish ment and de vel op ment of aonla plants on de graded sloppy lands, as the growth and NPK con tent of the leaves were sig nif i cantly im proved when the plants were sub jected to dif fer ent in-situ mois ture con ser va tion meth ods. Among the dif fer ent meth ods of in-situ mois ture con ser va tion, the treat ment plant ing one month old poly thene raised Seed lings in a pit de pres sion of 1 m width and 15 cm deep, sur rounded by a ring-shaped ridge with 25 cm width and 15 cm height and a 30 cm open ing on the higher side to har vest rain wa ter and fill ing the de pres sion with straw and cov er ing the pit with black poly thene and per form ing patch bud ding next year dur ing end of June, which re sulted in max i mum growth and plant nu tri ent up take found to be the best in-situ mois ture con ser va tion method and may be recommended for rehabilitation of degraded sloppy lands. REF ER ENCES 1. Awasthi, O.P.; Pathak, R.A. and Pathak, R.K. (1993). Ef fect of age and po si tion of shoot on min eral com po si tion of aonla. In dian J. Hort., 50(2): 134- 138. 2. Badhe, V.T. and Magar, S.S. (2004). In flu ence of dif fer ent con ser va tion mea sures on run off, soil and nu tri ent loss un der cashewnut in lateritic soils of south Konkan re gion. In dian J. Soil Cons., 32 (2): 143-147. 3. Borthakur, P.K. and Bhattacharya, R.K. (1992). Or ganic mulches in guava or chards. In dian Hort., 37 (2) : 43-44. 4. Chandra, S. (2000). Ef fi cacy of drip ir ri ga tion and mulch ing on aonla ber crop ping sys tem in sodic soil. Ph. D the sis submiited to N D U A&T, Faizabad. 5. Ghosh, S.N.; Mathew, B. and Manna, S. (2002). Ef fect of in-situ mois ture con ser va tion on growth, yield and fruit qual ity of cus tard ap ple. J. Maharashtra Ag ri c. Uni ver si ties, 27(3): 263-265. 6. Hedge, H.M. and Srinivas, K. (1989). Ef fect of mulches and anti transpirants on growth, yield and wa ter use of ba nana. Prog. Hort., 21 (1-2): 44.47. 7. Jack son, M.L. (1973). Soil chem i cal anal y sis. Prentice Hall of In dia Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi. Ta ble 5: Ef fect of in-situ moisture conservation methods on leaf nutrient content in Aonla. Treatment Nitrogen Content (%) Phosphorus Content (%) Potassium Content (%) 2006 2007 Mean 2006 2007 Mean 2006 2007 Mean T 1 : Polythene mulching 1.89 (7.90) 1.91 (7.94) 1.90 (7.92) 0.21 (2.63) 0.19 (2.50) 0.20 (2.56) 1.19 (6.26) 1.22 (6.34) 1.21 (6.30) T 2 : Trench + straw mulching 2.21 (8.55) 2.23 (8.59) 2.22 (8.57) 0.23 (2.75) 0.24 (2.81) 0.24 (2.78) 1.37 (6.72) 1.40 (6.80) 1.39 (6.76) T 3 : Submerged pitcher 2.04 (8.21) 2.09 (8.31) 2.07 (8.27) 0.22 (2.69) 0.23 (2.75) 0.23 (2.72) 1.27 (6.47) 1.33 (6.62) 1.30 (6.55) T 4 : Pit depression 2.33 (8.78) 2.38 (8.87) 2.36 (8.84) 0.27 (2.98) 0.26 (2.92) 0.27 (2.95) 1.44 (6.89) 1.38 (6.75) 1.41 (6.82) T 5 : Control 1.73 (7.56) 1.75 (7.60) 1.74 (7.58) 0.19 (2.50) 0.17 (2.36) 0.18 (2.43) 1.02 (5.80) 1.11 (6.05) 1.07 (5.93) CD (P = 0.05) 0.42 0.35 0.29 0.14 0.16 0.11 0.41 0.32 0.27 8. Mishra, L.N. (1998) Ef fect of mulch ing on the con ser va tion of soil mois ture and plant growth in aonla + guava crop ping sys tem. M.Sc.(Ag) the sis, De part ment of Hor ti cul ture, NDUA&T, Kumarganj, Faizabad. 9. Pareek, O.P. (1993). Wa ter man age ment in fruit crops. In: Ad vances in Hor ti cul ture Vol. 2, Fruit crops Eds. K.L. Chadha and O.P. Pareek, Malhotra Pub lish ing House, New Delhi, pp. 725-762. 10. Singh, D., Chhonkar, P.K. and Pandey, R.N. (1999). Soil–plant–wa ter anal y sis – A meth ods man ual. Pp. 57-67. 11. Singh, R.K. (1992). Research strategies at national level for fruit cultivation and utilisation of wastelands. Agric. Situation in India, 47(5): 359-364. Effect of in-situ moisture conservation on plant growth and nutrient uptake in aonla 7 RE SPONSE OF CAU LI FLOWER GROWTH AND DE VEL OP MENT UN DER WA TER SCAR CITY CON DI TIONS IN TEM PER ATE ZONE P.S. Kashyap* De part ment of Soil & Wa ter Con ser va tion En gi neer ing G. B. Pant Uni ver sity of Ag ri cul ture & Tech nol ogy, Pantnagar–263 145 *E-mail: pskashyap@ya hoo.com AB STRACT : The study was car ried out at the Col lege of For estry & Hill Ag ri cul ture, Hill Cam pus, Ranichauri, Uttarakhand. Soil mois ture con tent was mea sured us ing gravimetric method pe ri od i cally in 0-15, 15-30, 30-45 and 45-60 cm soil pro files. Field ex per i ments were con ducted on cau li flower (Bras sica oleracea) crop dur ing 2007-08 and 2008-09. The crop was trans planted in Oc to ber and har vested in Feb ru ary span ning 100 and 99 days, re spec tively. Four ir ri ga tion treat ments were main tained based on the max i mum al low able de ple tion (MAD) of avail able soil wa ter. The treat ments were 15% (T 1 ), 30% (T 2 ), 45% (T 3 ) and 60% (T 4 ) max i mum al low able de ple tion of avail able soil wa ter. No wa ter stress was main tained at the ini tial stages of the crop de vel op ment in or der to al low the plants at tain a healthy growth. Results re vealed that ir ri ga tion sched ule with 45% max i mum al low able de ple tion of avail able soil wa ter gave the max i mum wa ter use ef fi ciency for cau li flower crop. It was found that for sched ul ing of ir ri ga tion for cau li flower crop 0-30 cm soil pro file should be con sid ered as most of the wa ter was found to be ex tracted from this layer by the plant. Keywords : Cau li flower, growth, al low able de ple tion of mosture, wa ter use ef fi ciency, soil pro file. Cau li flower is one of sev eral veg e ta bles in the spe cies Brassica oleracea, in the fam ily Brassicaceae. It is an annual plant that is re pro duced by seed. Typ i cally, only the head (the white curd) is eaten. The cau li flower head is com posed of a white in flo res cence meristem. Cau li flower heads re sem ble those in broc coli, which dif fers in hav ing flower buds. Its name co mes from Latin word cau lis (cab bage) and flower, Bras sica oleracea also in cludes cab bage, brussels sprouts, kale, broc coli, and col lard greens, though they are of dif fer ent generic cultivar groups. Cau li flower is one of the most pop u lar crop through out the world. It thrives well in all soil tex tures that have good in ter nal drain age. It is rel a tively sen si tive to soil wa ter def i cits. Cau li flower needs fre quent ir ri ga tions for its good growth and yield (Rangarajan, 8). The wa ter re quire ment var ies widely from crop to crop and also dur ing the pe riod of growth of in di vid ual crop (Doorenboss and Pruitt, 2). In case of sit u a tions where wa ter sup ply is lim ited, the ir ri ga tion de mand of the en tire crop ping pat tern can not be met fully. In these con di tions, de lib er ate un der ir ri ga tion, also known as def i cit ir ri ga tion can play a ma jor role (Iqbal et al., 5). By def i cit ir ri ga tion, crops are pur pose fully un der ir ri gated dur ing plant growth stages that are rel a tively in sen si tive to wa ter stress as re gards to the qual ity and quan tity of the harvestable yield (Musick, 7). Iden ti fy ing growth stages of a par tic u lar cultivar un der lo cal con di tions of cli mate and soil fer til ity al lows ir ri ga tion sched ul ing for both max i mum crop yield and most ef fi cient use of scarce wa ter re sources (Doorenbos and Kassam, 3). With these back ground con sid er ations a com pre hen sive field in ves ti ga tion was un der taken on a silty clay loam soil at the ex per i men tal fields of Ag ri cul tural En gi neer ing Sec tion, Hill Cam pus, Ranichauri, Tehri-Garhwal, Uttarakhand. The ex per i men tal crop cv. Pusa Snow ball of cau li flower was se lected, which is a pop u lar va ri ety of the re gion. The ef fects of var i ous sched ul ing of ir ri ga tion on the pro file soil wa ter sta tus, crop yield, bio mass and wa ter use ef fi ciency were stud ied. Ir ri ga tion sched ules were based on 15, 30, 45 and Received : 30.12.2013 Revised : 24.1.2013 Accepted : 14.2.2013 HortFlora Research Spectrum, 2(1): 8-13 (Jan.-March 2013) ISSN : 2250-2823 60 % max i mum al low able de ple tion (MAD) of avail able soil wa ter (ASW). MA TE RI ALS AND METH ODS The present study was carried out at the experimental terraces of the Agricultural Engineering Section, College of Forestry & Hill Agriculture, Hill Campus, Ranichauri, Uttarakhand, India. The field is located on a sloping terraced land situated at an altitude of 1850 m above mean sea level. Ranichauri is intersected by 30° 18’ N latitude and 78° 24’ E longitude. The local climate is sub-humid in temperate zone with an average rainfall of 1240 mm concentrated over the months of June to September. During both years experiments, the temperatures were generally moderate and suitable for the growth of cauliflower crop. The physical properties of the soil of experimental field used for cauliflower crop were as given in Table 1. Field ex per i ments were con ducted on cultivar ‘Pusa Snow ball’ of cau li flower, which is a pop u lar 100-120 days veg e ta ble crop of the lo cal ity and suits to the pre vail ing cli mate of the re gion. Wa ter def i cits dur ing the pe riod of curd for ma tion have the great est ad verse ef fect on the yield of the crop, whereas early veg e ta tive and mat u ra tion pe ri ods are less sen si tive (Doorenbos and Kassam, 3). The first field ex per i ment was con ducted dur ing the pe riod from 20 th Oc to ber 2007 to 27 th Jan u ary 2008. The sec ond ex per i ment was con ducted dur ing 26 th Oc to ber 2008 to 1 th Feb ru ary 2009. Field lay out and ex per i men tal de tails Cau li flower was grown in a ter raced land of 180 m 2 area. The field was di vided into 20 plots of 3 m x 3 m size. Farm Yard Ma nure (FYM) was mixed man u ally with top 20 cm of soil layer at the rate of 20 kg/ha 10 days be fore trans plant ing. Sec ond dose of FYM was ap plied at the time of curd for ma tion (30 days af ter trans plant ing) at the rate of 10 kg/ha. The trans plant ing was done at a spac ing of 60 cm (row to row) and 60 cm (plant to plant) dur ing both years’ ex per i ments. Ir ri ga tion treat ments and sched ul ing The ir ri ga tion treat ments dur ing ex per i ments con sisted of ir ri ga tion sched ul ing based on max i mum al low able de ple tion (MAD) of avail able soil wa ter (ASW) cri te ria, which was as : T 1 = 15% max i mum al low able de ple tion (MAD) of avail able soil wa ter (ASW), T 2 = 30% MAD of ASW, T 3 = 45% MAD of ASW and T 4 = 60% MAD of ASW. Ir ri ga tion sched ul ing was based on the per cent age de ple tion of avail able soil wa ter in the root zone. The avail able soil wa ter was taken as the dif fer ence be tween root zone wa ter stor age at field ca pac ity and per ma nent wilt ing point. For es ti mat ing wa ter stor age the ef fec tive root zone of cau li flower crop was con sid ered as 45 cm (Allen et al., 1), ir re spec tive of growth stage. Us ing the data of soil mois ture mea sured gravimetrically, the per cent age de ple tion of avail able soil wa ter in the ef fec tive root zone was es ti mated. The plots were ir ri gated us ing a hose pipe and a wa ter me ter to give the ex act vol ume of wa ter. Response of cauliflower growth and development under water scarcity conditions in temperate zone 9 Ta ble 1.Phys i cal prop er ties of soil pro files of the ex per i men tal field. Soil depth (cm) Particle size distribution (%) Bulk density (g/cc) Saturated hydraulic conductivity (cm/day) Clay Silt Sand 0-15 30.0 29.5 40.5 1.60 15.2 15-30 32.2 33.3 34.5 1.55 10.3 30-45 34.8 35.8 29.4 1.57 3.3 45-60 34.9 32.1 33.0 1.62 2.5 60-90 35.7 34.0 30.3 1.65 1.6 10 Kashyap Data col lec tion For the study of wa ter bal ance, crop and bio mass re sponse to def i cit ir ri ga tion and wa ter use ef fi ciency, the data on pro file soil mois ture con tent and the growth at trib utes of the crop un der con sid er ation was col lected. In or der to as sess the change in soil wa ter bal ance, soil mois ture was mea sured in 0-15, 15-30, 30-45 and 45-60 cm soil pro files. The mois ture con tent of soil lay ers were mea sured gravimetrically. Mois ture mea sure ments were taken on ev ery al ter nate day. RE SULTS AND DIS CUS SION In order to assess the depth and time variation of soil moisture under different scheduling of irrigation, soil moisture was measured periodically in 0-15, 15-30, 30-45, 45-60 and 60-90 cm soil profiles during both the experiments. Depth and time vari a tion of soil mois ture The tem po ral vari a tions of soil mois ture in the root zone and be low the root zone of the ex per i men tal crop are pre sented in Fig. 1. The fig ures re veal that the soil mois ture ex pe ri enced a cy clic tem po ral vari a tion at all soil depths. This trend was ob served ir re spec tive of the level of ir ri ga tion (MAD level). The am pli tude of this cy clic vari a tion (Fig. 1) was higher in up per lay ers than in lower lay ers. In ex per i ment 1, there was a rapid de cline of soil mois ture in 0-15 cm soil pro file at 82 days af ter trans plant ing (DAS) to the end of growth pe riod. The lower lay ers of 15-30, 30-45, 45-60 and 60-90 cm soil pro files also ex hib ited a grad ual de cline in that or der upto the end of the growth pe riod. The de cline was quite slow in 60-90 cm soil pro file. The am pli tude of cy clic vari a tion was more in 0-15 cm soil pro file be cause most of the ap plied ir ri ga tion wa ter was lost through evap o ra tion from the soil sur face be side the tran spi ra tion. In ad di tion to this, a por tion of the ap plied ir ri ga tion wa ter per co lated to the lower lay ers also. Since the fre quency of ir ri ga tion was high un der T 1 , plants ex tracted more wa ter from the up per lay ers. There fore, 15-30, 30-45 and 45-60 cm soil pro files did not ex hibit much cy clic vari a tion. This trend was ob served in both the ex per i ments. In re sem blance to the tem po ral vari a tion of soil mois ture un der T 1 , soil mois ture in 0-15, 15-30, 30-45 and 45-60 cm soil pro files un der 30% MAD (T 2 ) also ex hib ited cy clic pat tern (Fig. 1). Con tin u ous sharp de clines of soil mois ture in all soil pro files were ob served on 82 DAS. The mag ni tude of cy clic vari a tion was higher in 30-45 and 45-60 cm soil pro files as com pared to sim i lar lay ers of T 1 dur ing both the crop sea sons (Fig. 1). High am pli tude of cy clic vari a tion was noted in all soil pro files of the root zone un der 45% MAD (T 3 ). Since the ir ri ga tions were sched uled at 45% MAD, the plant roots pen e trated deeper in search of wa ter as it was not ad e quate in the up per soil lay ers. The tem po ral vari a tion of soil wa ter was ob served to be sim i lar dur ing both the ex per i ments. The tem po ral vari a tion un der T 3 ex hib ited cy clic pat tern upto 84 DAS in 0-15 and 15-30 cm soil pro files dur ing ex per i ment 1, while 30-45, 45-60 and 60-90 cm soil pro files showed a grad ual de cline on 68 DAS. A sim i lar trend was ob served dur ing other ex per i ment also. Con sid er able soil mois ture fluc tu a tion was ob served un der 60% MAD (T 4 ) sched ule. All soil pro files ex hib ited dis cern ible cy clic vari a tion, with con sid er ably low am pli tudes in the lower depths as com pared to those ob served at up per depths. This was as cribed to the large vol ume of wa ter ap plied at a time dur ing ir ri ga tion. The 60-90 cm soil pro file tended to re main steady upto the last ir ri ga tion ap plied, af ter which it de creased only mar gin ally dur ing the re main ing growth pe riod. Soil mois ture be low the root zone (60-90 cm soil pro file) of the ex per i men tal plots ex pe ri enced min i mum cy clic vari a tion with time. A slight con tin u ous de cline was ob served when ir ri ga tions were dis con tin ued. This trend was ob served dur ing both ex per i ments, confirming to results of Kashyap and Panda (6). Response of cauliflower growth and development under water scarcity conditions in temperate zone 11 Table 2.Water use efficiency (WUE) of Cauliflower crop under different scheduling of irrigation during experiments 1 and 2. Expt. No. Treatments Fresh yield ET Irrigation Crop-WUE Field-WUE kg/ha mm mm kg/ha/mm kg/ha/mm 1 (2007-08) T 1 12320 218 210 76.45 79.37 T 2 12300 200 182 75.00 82.42 T 3 13220 180 159 78.70 89.10 T 4 11980 181 142 69.06 88.03 2 (2008-09) T 1 14800 200 202 75.00 74.26 T 2 14600 198 175 68.18 77.14 T 3 14760 165 156 77.27 81.73 T 4 14320 160 121 70.31 92.98 Profile Soil Moistute Content at treatment T1 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 days after sowing v o l u m e t r i c m o i s t u r e c o n t e n t , % 0_15 15_30 30_45 45_60 Figure 1: Profile soil moisture content at different soil profiles at 15% MAD (T 1 ) Profile Soil Moistute Content at treatment T2 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 days after sowing v o l u m e t r i c m o i s t u r e c o n t e n t , % 0_15 15_30 30_45 45_60 Figure 1: Profile soil moisture content at different soil profiles at 30% MAD (T 2 ) 12 Kashyap Crop wa ter use ef fi ciency The crop wa ter use ef fi ciency was taken as the ra tio of the fresh yield and the crop evapotranspiration. The re sults per tain ing to wa ter use ef fi ciency of the cau li flower crop un der dif fer ent sched ul ing of ir ri ga tion dur ing crop ex per i ments 1 and 2 (Ta ble 2) revealed that the high est crop wa ter use ef fi ciency was at tained when the ir ri ga tion was sched uled at 45% de ple tion of ASW (T 3 ). A ris ing trend of crop wa ter use ef fi ciency was no ticed from T 1 to T 3 and af ter that it de creased for T 4 and T 5 as the ir ri ga tions were de layed. A sim i lar trend was ob served dur ing both crop sea sons. Field wa ter use ef fi ciency The field wa ter use ef fi ciency was es ti mated in terms of fresh yield ob tained per unit of land used and per unit of wa ter avail able to the field. The re sults (Ta ble 2) re vealed that the high est field wa ter use ef fi ciency was at tained when the ir ri ga tion was sched uled at 45% de ple tion of ASW (T 3 ). Sim i lar to crop wa ter use ef fi ciency, a ris ing trend of field wa ter use ef fi ciency was no ticed from T 1 to T 3 af ter that it de creased for T 4 and T 5 as the ir ri ga tions were de layed. This trend was same dur ing both crop sea sons. Field ex per i ments con ducted dur ing both crop sea sons re vealed that ir ri ga tion sched ule with 45% max i mum al low able Profile Soil Moistute Content at treatment T3 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 days after sowing v o l u m e t r i c m o i s t u r e c o n t e n t , % 0_15 15_30 30_45 45_60 Figure 3: Profile soil moisture content at different soil profiles at 45% MAD (T 3 ) Profile Soil Moistute Content at treatment T4 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 days after sowing v o l u m e t r i c m o i s t u r e c o n t e n t , % 0_15 15_30 30_45 45_60 Figure 4: Profile soil moisture content at different soil profiles at 60% MAD (T 4 ) de ple tion of avail able soil wa ter could safely be main tained dur ing the non-crit i cal stages to save wa ter with out sac ri fic ing the yield. CONCLUSIONS The re sults of the study re vealed that un der wa ter scar city con di tions, when soil wa ter stress is im posed dur ing non-crit i cal stages of growth, ir ri ga tion is to be sched uled at 45% max i mum al low able de ple tion of avail able soil wa ter for cau li flower crop grown in silty clay loam soils in a sub-hu mid and tem per ate re gion. A soil wa ter stress of 45% MAD gives the high est crop wa ter use ef fi ciency as well as field wa ter use ef fi ciency. Only 0-30 cm of soil pro file is to be con sid ered for sched ul ing of ir ri ga tion for cau li flower crop grown in a silty clay loam soils, since most of the wa ter used by the crop is ex tracted from this layer. REF ER ENCES 1. Allen, R.G., Pereira, L.S., Raes, D. and Smith, M. (1998). Crop evapotranspiration. Guide lines for com put ing crop wa ter re quire ments. FAO Irrig. and Drain. Pa per No.56. FAO, Rome, It aly. 300pp. 2. Doorenboss, J. and Pruitt, W.O. (1977). Crop wa ter re quire ments. Re vised 1997. FAO Irrig Drain Pa per 24. FAO of United Na tions, Rome. P 144. 3. Doorenboss, J. and Kassam, A.H. (1979). Yield re sponse to wa ter. FAO Irrig. and Drain. Pa per No. 33. FAO, Rome, It aly. 181pp 4. Hillel, D. (ed.) 1971. Soil and Wa ter: Phys i cal Prin ci ples and Pro cesses. Ac a demic press, New York. 5. Iqbal, M.M., Shah, S.M., Mohammad, W. and Nawaz, H. (1999). Field re sponse of cau li flower sub jected to wa ter stress at dif fer ent growth stages. In: Crop yield re sponse to def i cit ir ri ga tion. Kirda, C., Moutonnet, P., Hera, C., Niel sen, D.R. (eds.). Kluwer Ac a demic Pub lish ers, The Neth er lands. 6. Kashyap, P.S., Panda, R.K. (2002). Ef fect of ir ri ga tion sched ul ing on pro file soil wa ter sta tus and wa ter use ef fi ciency un der scar city con di tions. Pro ceed ings of the In ter n. con fer ence on “Ad vances in civil en gi neer ing” held at IIT, Kharagpur, In dia. Jan u ary 3-5, 2002. Vol I: Pa per No. 144. 7. Musick, J.T. (1994). Gen eral guide lines for def i cit ir ri ga tion man age ment. Pa per pre sented at Cen tral Plains Ir ri ga tion Short Course, Feb ru ary, 7-8, 1994. Gar den City, Kan sas, USA. 8. Rangarajan, S. (2000). Cauliflower production in India. Survey of Indian Agriculture-2000. National Press, Chennai. December, 1999. 35-40pp. Response of cauliflower growth and development under water scarcity conditions in temperate zone 13 PRO DUC TION AND MAR KET ING OF MUSH ROOM IN KANPUR NAGAR DIS TRICT OF UTTAR PRADESH B.S. Sachan 1 , Keshvendra Singh 2 , Neeraj Kumar 2 and Jitendra Kumar 1 ¹Deptt. of Ag ri cul tural Eco nom ics, C.S. Azad Uni ver sity of Ag ri cul ture and Tech nol ogy, Kanpur ²Deptt. of Ag ri cul tural Eco nom ics, B.N.V. Col lege Rath, Hamirpur, U.P. AB STRACT: The pre sent study was con ducted in Kanpur Nagar dis trict of Uttar pradesh with 60 mush room grow ers se lected from five vil lages and cat e go rized as small, me dium and large based on wheat straw used by them mainly to study the mar ket ing prac tices and chan nels in volved in the mar ket ing of mush room and to es ti mate the se lect ing costs, mar gins and price spread. The study re veals that women co-op er a tive so ci ety was the most im por tant agency in the mar ket ing of mush room. Av er age quan tity sold on per form ba sis was 6.17 quin tals. Half of the pro ducer – sell ers pre ferred to sell mush room in 1 to 2 quin tals size plot. Mush room quan tity (about 66 per cent) of mush room was sold with in the vil lage by ma jor ity of pro ducer-sell ers (about 70 per cent). Three chan nels were iden ti fied in the mar ket ing of mush room. Pro ducer’s share in con sumer’s ru pee was the high est (98.53 per cent) in chan nel-1 (farmer-con sumer). Re tailer earned to max i mum mar ket ing mar gin (12.89 per cent) in the mar ket ing of mush room. Keywords: Mush room, pro duc ers, con sum ers, re tail ers, whole saler, paddy straw, wheat straw. The mush room crop is grown prac ti cally all over In dia with 50,000 tonnes pro duc tion dur ing 2009-10. The ma jor mush room grow ing states are Uttar Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh. In Uttar pradesh, the work on mush room was ini ti ated in late six ties. The state has con duc tive cli mate for rip en ing but ton, oys ter and paddy straw mush room. At pres ent in Uttar Pradesh mush room pro duc tion is about 750 tonnes per an num due to in stal la tion of some big mush room units nearby Kannauj, Ramabai Nagar, Unnao, Fatehpur and Fatehgarh cit ies. Among var i ous dis tricts of Uttar Pradesh Kanpur Nagar ranks first it ranks the first in pro duc tion of mush room. In Kanpur Nagar Dis trict, All In dia Co-ordinated mush room im prove ment pro ject is also func tion ing. Though mush room is an im por tant cash crop of the state. There is no lo ca tion spe cific in for ma tion on mush room. With re gards to its growth and var i ous pro duc tion and mar ket ing as pects like cost of pro duc tion, dis posal pat tern, cost, mar gin and price spread in the mar ket ing of mush room, the pres ent study was un der taken in Kanpur Nagar dis trict of Uttar Pradesh with the ob jec tives of : 1. To study the mar ket ing prac tices and chan nels in volved in the mar ket ing of mush room in the se lected area. 2. To study the mar ket ing costs and mar gins in mush room mar ket ing, and 3. To es ti mate the pro duc tion share in con sumer’s ru pee. MATERIALS AND METHODS A list of all vil lages where AIMCMIP (All In dia Co or di nated Mush room Im prove ment Pro ject) is pro vid ing tech ni cal sup port in Kanpur Nagar dis trict was pre pared and out of these five vil lages were pur pos ively se lected on the ba sis of the high est num ber of mush room grow ers. The se lected vil lages were di vided into two zones i.e. zone 1 : vil lages on the road and dis tance of less than 15 kms from the mar ket, and zone-II vil lages away from the road and at dis tance of 15 kms and more from the mar ket. Thus, out of these se lected five vil lages, three vil lages viz, Bidhnu, Patara, Kalayanpur were in zone 1 and re main ing two vil lages viz., Singhpur and Sheorajpur were of zone II. A list of mush room grow ers was pre pared for all the se lected vil lages sep a rately and the pro duc ers were di vided in the three size groups on the ba sis of wheat straw used for mush room cul ti va tion. 1. Small size group: Less than one tonne Received : 9.7.2012 Revised : 12.11.2012 Accepted : 14.12.2012 HortFlora Research Spectrum, 2(1): 14-19 (Jan.-March 2013) ISSN : 2250-2823 wheat straw used, 2. Me dium size group: 1-2 tonnes wheat straw used, 3. Large size group: More than two tonnes wheat straw used. From each se lected vil lage 12 re spon dents were ran domly se lected in pro por tion in the num ber of grow ers in each size hold ing. Thus in all 60 re spon dents were se lected. Both sec ond ary and pri mary data were col lected for the year 2010-11. To ful fill the stated ob jec tives, tab u lar anal y sis was used. Mar ket ing ef fi ciency was cal cu lated by us ing Acharys’a in dex of mar ket ing ef fi ciency (Acharya 1). RE SULTS AND DIS CUS SION The sale of mush room can vary ac cord ing to the mush room grow ers size groups and the quan tity pro duced. There fore the pro duc tion and sale of mush room was ana lysed in re la tion to size groups and size of pro duc tion. The data pre sented in Ta ble 1 show that about 46 per cent of the to tal mush room pro duc tion was con trib uted by me dium size group and the re main ing 54 per cent was al most equally con trib uted by small and large size groups. Pro duc tion of mush room perfarm in creased with the in crease in the size of unite. The av er age pro duc tion per farm was 6.52 quin tals. Small, me dium and large size groups pro duced 2.52, 15.00 and 17.50 quin tals of mush room per farm, re spec tively. Over all quan tity of mush room mar keted by se lected grow ers was 93.33 per cent of the to tal pro duc tion. Across the size groups, both small and me dium grow ers sold 94.34 per cent while large grow ers sold 97.14 per cent of their to tal mush room pro duc tion. Thus, more than 93 per cent of the to tal pro duc tion was sold by dif fer ent size groups confirming the findings of Chanda (3). The av er age quan tity of mush room sold per seller farm was 6.17 quin tals. Quan tity of mush room sale of per farm by small, me dium and large size groups were 2.38, 14.00 and 17.00 quin tals, re spec tively. Thus sale of seller in creased with in crease in size of unit. The num ber of sell ers and quan tity of mush rooms sold ac cord ing to size of lots by dif fer ent size groups (Ta ble 2) clearly indicates that nearly 80 per cent of the to tal quan tity was sold by 85 per cent pro ducer sell ers in dif fer ent size of lots i.e <1, 1-2, 2-4 and above quin tals. The re main ing 20 per cent mush room quan tity was sold by 15 per cent pro ducer sell ers in com bi na tion of dif fer ent size of lots. Max i mum num ber of pro duc ers sell ers sold the max i mum quan tity i.e. 128.87 quin tals (34.83 per cent) of the to tal sale in lot size of 1-2 quin tals. The min i mum quan tity i.e. 36.90 quin tals (9.97 per cent) was sold by 12 (20.00 per cent) pro ducer sell ers in the lot size of less than 1 quin tal. Across the size groups pro ducer of small size groups sold mush room in lot size of less than one quin tals, 1-2 quin tals and in the com bi na tion of these two lots. The max i mum quan tity (46.62%) was sold by max i mum pro ducer-sell ers (59.52%) of this size group in the lot size of 1-2 quin tals, 2-4 Production and marketing of mushroom in Kanpur Nagar district of U.P. 15 Ta ble 1: Mush room pro duc tion and sale ac cord ing to size groups. Size group No. of producer Production (q) Quantity sold (q) Total Per farm Total Per farm Small 42 106 252 100 238 Medium 12 180 15 168 14.00 Large 6 105 17.50 102 17.00 Total 60 391 6.52 370 6.07 16 Sachan et al. quin tals, 4 quin tals and above and in the com bi na tion of these three lots. In this size groups also the max i mum quan tity (48.96%) was sold by the max i mum pro ducer-sell ers (41.67%) in the lot size of 1-2 quin tals. The pro ducer-seller of large size group did not sell their mush room in small size of lot i.e. less than 1 quin tal and 1-2 quin tals, 4 quin tals and above and the com bi na tion of these two lots. The max i mum pro ducer-sell ers (66.66%) of this group sold their max i mum quan tity (54.16%) in the lot size of 2-4 quin tals. Thus, it can be con cluded that max i mum quan tity was sold by max i mum num ber of pro ducer sell ers in lot size of 1-2 quin tals and min i mum quan tity was sold in the lot of size of less than 1 quin tal. The min i mum num ber of pro ducer-sell ers be longed to lot size of 4 quin tals & above. The max i mum pro ducer-sell ers of small and me dium size groups sold their max i mum quan tity of mush room in the lot size of 1-2 quin tals while the max i mum pro ducer-sell ers of large size group sold the max i mum quan tity of mush room in the size of 2-4 quin tals. Place of sale: The data pre sented in Ta ble 3 re veal that max i mum quan tity i.e. 66 per cent of to tal mush room was sold with vil lages while about 25 per cent quan tity was sold in Kanpur Nagar mar ket and the re main ing 9 per cent quan tity of mush room was sold in com bi na tion of dif fer ent places of sale i.e., sold in more than one place of sale. In the sale of small size of groups the higher num ber of pro duc ers i.e. 35 (83.33 per cent) sold the max i mum quan tity (83 per cent) with in the vil lage fol lowed by 4 (9.53%). Pro ducer – sell ers who sold 10 per cent quan tity of mush room in Kanpur Nagar mar ket. The re main ing 7 per cent quan tity of mush room was sold by 7.14 per cent pro ducer – sell ers in both the place of sale i.e. with in the vil lage and sell ers in both the place of sale i.e. with in the vil lage and in Kanpur Nagar mar ket. In me dium size group about 74 per cent of the to tal quan tity was sold by 50 per cent of the pro ducer – sell ers with in the vil lage fol lowed by 25 per cent pro ducer – sell ers who sold 20 per cent quan tity of mush room in Kanpur Nagar mar ket. The re main ing 6 per cent quan tity of mush room was sold by 25 per cent pro ducer – sell ers in both places of sale. In the large size group two-third of pro ducer – seller (66.67 per cent) sole of the max i mum quan tity i.e. 47.06 per cent of their to tal sale of mush room in Kanpur Nagar mar ket and one-sixth (16.67 per cent) of pro ducer- sell ers sold (36.27 per cent) with in vil lage. The re main ing one – sixth Ta ble 2: Num ber of sell ers and quan tity of mush room sold ac cord ing to size of lots by dif fer ent size-groups. Particulars Size of lots (quintals) <1 1-2 2-4 4 & above Combination of different size of lots Total Small number of sellers 12 (28.57) 25 (59.52) - - 5 (11.91) 42 (100.00) Medium number of sellers - 5 (41.67) 3 (25.00) 1 (8.33) 3 (25.00) 12 (100.00) Quantity sold (qtls) - 82.25 (48.96) 19 (11.59) 33.36 (19.80) 33.02 (19.65) 168 (100.00) Total No. of sellers 12 (20.00) 30 (50.00) 7 (11.67) 2 (3.33) 9 (15.00) 60 (100.00) Quantity sold (qtls) 36.90 (36.90) 46.82 (46.62) - - 16.48 (12.48) 100 (100.00) Figure in parenthesis are percentage of respective row total. (16.66 per cent) pro ducer–sell ers sold the re main ing one-sixth quan tity of mush room in both these place of sale. The findings are in consonance with Acharya and Agrawal (1) and Chauhan and Sood (4). In all, the max i mum pro duce of 244.32 quin tals (66.03 per cent) was sold with in the vil lage by the ma jor ity of pro ducer – sell ers i.e. 70 per cent, whereas about 92 quin tals (about 25 per cent) was sold in Kanpur Nagar mar ket by 18 per cent pro ducer–sell ers. The re main ing 34.08 quin tals (9.21 per cent) of mush room was sold by 11.67 per cent pro ducer – sell ers in both the places of sale i.e., with in the vil lage and in Kanpur Nagar Mar ket. Mar ket ing chan nels: Mar ket ing chan nels are the routes through which mush room moves from pro ducer to ul ti mate con sumer. In this pro cess, mush room has to pass through more than one hand, ex cept when it is di rectly sold to con sumer by pro duc ers. In the mar ket ing chan nels for mush room var i ous agen cies. The fol low ing chan nel were iden ti fied in mush room mar ket ing in the study area. Channel I: In this chan nel pro duc ers sold 14.19 per cent of to tal mush room di rectly to con sumer or con sum ers pur chased mush room di rectly from pro duc ers. Chan nel II: In this chan nel, pro duc ers sold 60.81 per cent of the to tal sale of mush room to so ci et ies with in the vil lage. Chan nel III: Through this chan nel pro duc ers sold 25 per cent of the to tal mush room to whole saler in reg u lated mar ket of kanpur Nagar by ar rang ing their own trans por ta tion. Thus, it can be con cluded that chan nel- II was the most im por tant chan nel by which max i mum quan tity of mush room (60.81 per cent) reached the con sumer fol lowed by chan nel- III (25 per cent). Chan nel I was less im por tant be cause only Production and marketing of mushroom in Kanpur Nagar district of U.P. 17 Ta ble 3: Num ber of sell ers and quan tity of mush room sold ac cord ing to place of sale by dif fer ent size group of farms. Particulars Within village Place of sale Total Kanpur Nagar market Combination of different places of sale Small no. of sellers 35 (83.33) 4 (9.53) 3 (7.14) 42 (100.00) Quantity sold (qtls) 83 (83.00) 10 (10.00) 7 (7.00) 100 (100.00) Medium no. of sellers 6 (50.00) 3 (25.00) 3 (25.00) 12 (100.00) Quantity sold (qtls) 124.32 (74.00) 33.60 (20.00) 10.08 (6.00) 168 (100.00) Large no. of sellers 1 (16.67) 4 (66.66) 1 (16.67) 6 (100.00) Quantity sold (qtls) 34 (36.27) 48 (47.06) 17 (16.67) 102 (100.00) Total 42 (70.00) 11 (18.33) 7 (11.67) 6 (100.00) No. of sellers/quantity sold (qtls) 244.32 (66.03) 91.60 (91.60) 34.08 (9.21) 370 (100.00) 18 Sachan et al. (14-19 per cent quan tity) of mush room was sold through this chan nel. Mar ket ing cost of mush room in dif fer ent mar ket ing chan nels: The mar ket ing charges of the dif fer ent chan nels are sum ma rized in Ta ble 5. Mar ket ing charges var ied con sid er ably from chan nel to chan nel and were re lated di rectly with the length of chan nels dis tance of the mar ket), i.e. the lon ger the chan nel and dis tance, more were the charges. Channel – III (producer – wholesaler – retailer – consumer) being the longer channel and in this channel the highest marketing cost per quintal i.e. Rs. 127.48 were observed. The channel – I is the smallest channel accounting for the lowest marketing charges i.e. Rs. 97.06 per quintal. Thus it may be con cluded that as the length of chan nel in crease the mar ket ing cost also in creases and vice-versa. Pro duc er’s share in con sumer’s ru pee in mush room mar ket ing : A com par a tive view of pro ducer’s share and the mar ket ing costs and mar gins of the var i ous in ter me di ar ies in volved in the dif fer ent mar ket ing chan nels it is pre sented in Ta ble 6. It is ev i dent from the ta ble that pro ducer’s share in con sumer’s ru pee de creased with the in crease in the length of the mar ket ing chan nels. The pro ducer’s net share was the high est (98.53%) in chan nel- I while the low est (79.23%) in chan nel-III. Channel-III was the least favourable to the producers at their share was the lowest in consumer’s rupee. The consumers paid the lowest price when they purchased directly from the producer (Channel-I) and the highest price paid when to intermediaries were involved between the producer and consumer i.e. wholesaler and retailer in channel-III in the kanpur nagar market. The price paid by the consumer increased with the increase in the distance to sale of mushroom and the length of the marketing channels. In channel-III, where two intermediaries were involved the margin in channel-I as no marketing intermediary was involved and producer sold their produce directly to consumer. the retailer margin was more compared to wholesaler in channel-III. The profit of the wholesaler was 5.44 per cent and that of retailers was 13.99 per cent. The margin of societies was 8.91 per cent in channel-II. Findings of Boonlart (2) and Singh and Kalra (5) are also in line of present analysis. Mar ket ing ef fi ciency : In chan nel-I since no in ter me di ary was Ta ble 4: Quan tity of mushromm moved through var i ous mar ket ing chan nels. S. No. Channels Quantity moved (qtls) Percentage of quantity moved 1. Producer – consumer 52.50 14.19 2. Producer – societies – consumer 225.00 60.81 3. Producer – wholesaler – retailer -consumer 92.50 25.00 Total 370.00 100.00 Ta ble 5: Mar ket ing cost of mush room in dif fer ent mar ket ing chan nels. Rs. q/ha Marketing channel Producer Societies Wholesaler Retailer Total Channel - I 97.06 (100.00) - - - 97.06 (100.00) Channel - II 7.58 (7.15) 98.47 (92.85) - - 106.05 (100.00) Channel - III 85.30 (86.91) - 20.10 (15.77) 21.08 (17.32) 127.48 (100.00) in volved and less quan tity was moved from pro ducer to con sumer, mar ket ing ef fi ciency was not es ti mated for the chan nel. The marketing efficiency presented in Table-7 for the remaining two channels, indicate that channel-II (861.61 per cent) was more efficient compared to channel-III (38.58 per cent). REF ER ENCES 1. Acharya, S.S. and Agrawal, N.L. (2004). Ag ri cul tural Mar ket ing in In dia. Ox ford & IBH Pub lish ing Co. pvt. Ltd. New delhi, p. 390. 2. Boonlart-sa-optisttisak (1989). Pro duc tion and Mar ket ing of Straw Mush room. MacMillan Com pany, New York 9: 108. 3. Chanda, K.L. (1978). In fra-struc ture for mush room re search in In dia”. Na tional sym po sium on mush room, 8-10, April, pp. 27-34. 4. Chauhan, S.K. and Sood, R.P. (1992). Eco nom ics of pro duc tion and mar ket ing of mush room in Kangara distt., Himanchal Pradesh. In dian J. Ag ri c. Mar ket , 6: 44-49. 5. Singh, S. P. and Kalra Ashok (1995). Eco nomic anal y sis of mush room pro duc tion in distt. Sonipat of Haryana State, In dian J. Ag ri c. Mar ket, 9: 105-114. Production and marketing of mushroom in Kanpur Nagar district of U.P. 19 Ta ble 6: Quan tity of mush room moved through var i ous mar ket ing channels. S. No. Particular Channel-I Channel-III Channel-III Rs. q/ha % Rs. q/ha % Rs. q/ha % 1. Net price received by producer/ net share 6524.94 98.53 6384.93 89.60 5828.52 79.23 2. Market cost incurred by i. producer 97.06 1.47 7.58 0.11 85.30 1.16 ii. Societies - - 98.47 1.38 - - iii. Wholesaler - - - - 20.10 0.27 iv. retailer - 1.47 - 20.10 22.08 0.30 Total marketing cost 97.06 1.47 106.05 1.49 127.48 1.74 3. Net margin of i. Societies - - 635.00 8.91 - - ii. Wholesaler - - - - 100.00 5.44 iii. retailer - - - - 100.00 13.59 Total profit margin - - 635.00 8.91 1400.00 19.03 Price paid by consumer 6622.00 100.00 7126.00 100.00 7356.00 100.00 Ta ble 7: Mar ket ing ef fi ciency of mush room for dif fer ent mar ket ing chan nels. S. No. Particular Channel- II Channel-II 1. Net price received by producers (q/ha) 6384.95 5878.52 2. Total marketing cost (Rs./qtl) 106.05 127.48 3. Total marketing margins (Rs./qtl.) 633.00 1400.00 4. Consumer’s price (Rs./qtl.) 7125.00 7356.00 5. Marketing efficiency (%) 8.62 3.82 CHANGES IN BAK ING AND SEN SORY PROP ER TIES OF WHEAT BREAD AND MUF FINS WITH THE AD DI TION OF GRAPES Suresh Bhise*, Amarjeet Kaur and Poonam Aggarwal De part ment of Food Sci ence & Tech nol ogy Punjab Ag ri cul tural Uni ver sity, Ludhiana-141004 *E-mail: sureshbhise_cft@ya hoo.co.in AB STRACT: Grape juice res i due i.e. peel and seeds were dried in a cab i net drier at 60oC for 5 hours. Dried grape peel and seed pow der were uti lized in the bread and muf fins, which were found to be rich in to tal phe no lic com pounds, anthocyanins and ascor bic acid. On ad di tion of grape peel and seed pow der to the bread at 2 per cent and 4 per cent in each there was in crease in weight, vol ume, spe cific vol ume. The shelf life of bread with grape peel and seed pow der was more than con trol. The ap pear ance, col our, tex ture and taste of bread and muf fins with grape peel and seed pow der was more eye ap peal ing than con trol with higher sen sory scores. Keywords: Grape juice res i due, to tal phenolics, anthocyanins, ascor bic acid, bak ery prod ucts. Grape (Vitis vinifera), ba si cally a sub- trop i cal crop, is cul ti vated in an area of 64.3 thou sand ha with a to tal pro duc tion 1,630.7 thou sand tons and pro duc tiv ity of 25.4 tons/ha. Be cause of spe cial ar bour train ing sys tems pro vided for grape cul ti va tion in In dia, pro duc tiv ity is high est among the grape grow ing coun tries of the world. Grapes, the ed ible fruit of the grape vine, are a prime ex am ple of a true berry. A berry in bo tan i cal terms is a class of fleshy fruit lack ing a stony layer, with the fruit wall be ing fleshy or pulpy (Rob in son, 12). Grapes grow in bunches which vary in size and shape de pend ing on the grape va ri ety (Galet, 4) with varying colours from green to yel low, pink, crim son, dark blue, and black, with the ma jor ity of grapes be ing yel low or very dark pur ple (Rob in son, 12). The sig nif i cant parts of the berry are the flesh, skin, and seeds (Rob in son, 12). The flesh or pulp is the bulk of the berry. The pulp con tains the juice in vac u oles of pericarp cells (Mul lins et al., 11). A cen tral core of vas cu lar strands con nects to a mesh of veins that en cir cles the outer edge of the flesh like a “chicken-wire” cage. The grape skin is a tough en vel op ing layer around the grape that holds it to gether. The out side layer, or bloom, con sists of waxy plates and cutin, which re sist wa ter, fun gal spore growth and other bi o log i cal in fec tions. Be low the bloom are the cell lay ers that form the skin and con tained within these lay ers are con cen trated ca rot en oids, xan tho phylls and anthocyanins (Mul lins et al., 11). Tan nins, along with a sig nif i cant amount of the grapes fla vor com pounds, are also lo cated in the skin. Seeds con tain tan nins, mostly pro-anthocyanidins, which if crushed, con fer a bit ter taste (Rob in son, 12). Dis posal of grape pomace, the waste gen er ated dur ing wine mak ing, has posed a ma jor chal lenge for win er ies. Dur ing wine pro duc tion, wine grapes are har vested and pressed to ex tract juice for fer men ta tion. As a re sult of press ing, the skins, stems, and seeds are left be hind as waste. Re moval of this pomace is costly and if the pomace is not treated ef fec tively, it can ini ti ate a num ber of en vi ron men tal haz ards, rang ing from sur face and ground wa ter con tam i na tion to foul odours (Bonilla et al., 2). Win ery waste can also have an en vi ron men tal im pact through the in crease of the chem i cal ox y gen de mand (COD) and bio chem i cal ox y gen de mand (BOD) within wastewater streams. The high COD and BOD lev els of the grape pomace orig i nate from their high pol lu tion loads and high con tent of lipids and other or ganic sub stances such as sug ars, tan nins, polyphenols, poly al co hols and pectins (Schieber et al., 14). Due to the en vi ron men tal prob lems that these high COD and BOD cause, it is Received : 19.12.2012 Accepted : 05.1.2013 HortFlora Research Spectrum, 2(1): 20-24 (Jan.-March 2013) ISSN : 2250-2823 ben e fi cial for win er ies to find other ap pli ca tions for their grape pomace waste other than an i mal feeds or fer til iz ers (Inbar et al. 6). To help al le vi ate the is sues as so ci ated with grape pomace, its use in al ter na tive ap pli ca tions has been ex plored. Ap pli ca tions have in cluded the pro duc tion of value-added prod ucts such as di etary sup ple ments for dis ease pre ven tion (Shrikhande, 15), grappa (grape pomace al co hol) pro duc tion (Hang and Woodams, 5), laccase (Moldes et al., 10) and pullulan (Israilides et al., 7) pro duc tion. In ad di tion to find ing a pro duc tive use for a waste prod uct, these prod ucts have been pro duced in re sponse to a chang ing con sumer de mand for nat u rally pro cessed, ad di tive-free, and safe prod ucts. Con sum ers tend to pre fer safe, tra di tional prod ucts, which are pro moted as “nat u ral” and with out other ad di tives (Bi anco and Uccella, 1). Thus, the sub sti tu tion of cur rently used syn thetic food an ti ox i dants by ones pereceived as “nat u ral” by con sum ers in ter ests the re search com mu nity. The mar ket de mand for nat u ral an ti ox i dants rather than chem i cal an ti ox i dants added to baked prod ucts has di rectly in creased the de mand for novel polyphenolic con tain ing in gre di ents. As part of this trend, the for ma tion of an ti ox i dant rich flours milled from dried grape waste and the sub se quent in cor po ra tion of these flours into baked foods is a prom is ing op tion. The bak ing mar ket is an im por tant seg ment within the food and bev er age in dus try. The ma jor prod ucts mar keted within this in dus try in clude bread, morn ing goods, bis cuits, cakes, and past ries (Gale, 3). Con sum ers are in creas ingly con cerned about their health and are aware of the re la tion ship be tween nu tri tious food and op ti mal health. In creas ing con sumer de mand for healthy and con ve nient food has caused the bak ing in dus try to search for in no va tive yet func tional in gre di ents, which will al low them to cap i tal ize on the cur rent mar ket trends. Var i ous con cerns have caused con sum ers to closely mon i tor their di etary re quire ments. The ris ing in ci dence of health con di tions such as obe sity, di a be tes and car diac prob lems, con cerns over phys i cal ap pear ance and the in creas ing price of health care have all con trib uted to the de mand for health ier bak ery prod ucts (Lem pert, 9). One way to cre ate a health ier bak ery prod uct with an en hanced nu tri tional pro file is through the ad di tion of func tional in gre di ents such as phytosterols, multigrain, prebiotics, mul ti vi ta mins, and polyphenolics. Grape seed flour has been shown to be rich in polyphenolic com pounds and be cause of this pro file, a grow ing de mand ex ists for the in clu sion of this flour into pro cessed foods. Proantho- cyanidins are the ma jor polyphenols found in red wine and grape seeds with grape seeds be ing rich sources of monomeric phe no lic com pounds such as (+)-catechin, (-)-epicatechin, (-)-epicatechin-3-o- gallate, and dimeric, trimeric, and oligomeric procyanidins (Saito et al., 13). How ever, there is con cern that food prep a ra tion pro cesses such as bak ing cause a loss of some of the health ben e fits through phytochemical loss (Wang and Zhou, 17). Thus it is crit i cal to con sider the chem i cal changes which oc cur dur ing food prep a ra tion. The antioxidative prop er ties of grape peel and seed, cou pled with an in creased in ter est by con sum ers in wheat-based prod ucts con tain ing value-added in gre di ents, pres ent a sig nif i cant op por tu nity for re search and de vel op ment with the ob jec tives- to de velop bak ery prod ucts by uti liz ing grape peel and seeds, and to study the shelf life of the prod ucts MA TE RI ALS AND METH ODS Raw ma te ri als-flour, sugar, salt, yeast and other in gre di ents for prod uct prep a ra tion was pro cured from lo cal mar ket. Grapes (Punjab Purple) variety was procured from Department of Fruit Science, PAU, Ludhiana. Grape juice was extracted by using mechanical type of juice extractor. Bread was pre pared af ter in cor po ra tion of grape peel and seed pow der such at lev els of 0-4 per cent and packed in dif fer ent pack ag ing ma te ri als (Low Den sity Poly eth yl ene and Poly propy lene) Changes in baking and sensory properties of wheat bread and muffins with the addition of grapes 21 22 Bhise et al. which were stored un der am bi ent (30±1ºC) con di tions. De ter mi na tion of physico-chem i cal char ac ter is tics of raw ma te ri als was done us ing stan dard pro ce dures (AACC, 2000). Prod ucts- bread and muf fins were pre pared ac cord ing to stan dard pro ce dures (AACC, 2000) with slight mod i fi ca tion. Prod uct pre pared was eval u ated for sen sory prop er ties by panel of semi trained judges (Larmond, 8). For shelf life de ter mi na tion, breads were stored for 10 days at am bi ent and re frig er ated tem per a tures and an a lyzed for shelf life study. Physico-chem i cal anal y sis, prod uct qual ity, organoleptic qual ity and shelf life of raw ma te rial and prod uct were ob served and av er age data ob tained were sub jected to tech niques of anal y sis of vari ance (Singh et al., 16). RE SULTS AND DIS CUS SION Grape char ac ter is tics Grapes had 50 per cent juice yield, 12.7 per cent peel, 6.3 per cent seed, 31 per cent wines, 69 per cent ed ible part and 19 per cent juice res i due (Ta ble 1). Punjab Pur ple grape juice had 19.67°B TSS, 18.2 per cent to tal solids, 0.5 per cent acid ity, 8.13 mg/100g ascor bic acid, 5.47 mg/100g anthocyanins and 6.713 mg/100g tan nins. The grape peel had 24.5°B TSS, 22 per cent to tal solids, 0.48 per cent acid ity, 18.09 mg/100g ascor bic acid, 15.07 mg/100g anthocyanins and 34.68mg/g to tal phe nols. Grape seed con tains 37.5mg/g to tal phe nols (Ta ble 2). On an av er age, Red grapes con tain 18.1° B TSS, 0.49 per cent acid ity, 8.06 mg/100g ascor bic acid, 5.06 mg/100 anthocyanins and 3.92 pH (Gale et al., 3). Similarly, the amount of to tal phe nols from the dif fer ent parts of the red grape berry were es ti mated to be ~33 per cent in the skins, ~62 per cent in the seeds, ~1 per cent in the pulp, and ~4 per cent in the juice. Grapes (blue va ri ety) have 85±0.9 per cent mois ture, 2.7±0.2 g/100g fi ber and 23±9 mg/100g ascor bic acid. They also re ported that grapes con tain ma jor min er als (mg/100g) like Ca (30±1.8), Mg (40±0.8), Na (4±0.8), P (20±1.8), K (249±15) and other trace min er als like Fe, Zn and Cu. A grape seed con tains mainly phe nols such as proanthocyanidins (oligomeric proantho- cyanidins). Sci en tific stud ies have shown that the an ti ox i dant power of proanthocyanidins is 20 times greater than vi ta min E and 50 times greater than vi ta min C. Re searches sug gest that grape seed oil helps to pro tect the body from sun dam age, im prove vi sion, im prove flex i bil ity in joints, im prove blood cir cu la tion, and re duce LDL ox i da tion and the oc cur rence of cor o nary heart dis ease. The di etary con sump tion of grape and its prod ucts is as so ci ated with a lower in ci dence of de gen er a tive dis eases such as car dio vas cu lar dis ease and cer tain types of can cers. Anthocyanins, flavanols, flavonols and resveratrol are the most im por tant grape polyphenols be cause they pos sess many bi o log i cal ac tiv i ties, such as an ti ox i dant, cardioprotective, anticancer, anti-in flam ma tion, antiaging and antimicrobial prop er ties. They con cluded that the polyphenols from grape could widely be em ployed to pre vent and treat dis eases in as so ci a tion with re ac tive ox y gen spe cies, such as ath ero scle ro sis, cor o nary heart dis eases and can cer. Bak ing qual ity of bread Sig nif i cant vari a tions were found in weight, height, vol ume and spe cific vol ume of bread pre pared af ter in cor po ra tion of dried grape juice res i due. Loaf weight in creased with in creas ing level of dried grape juice res i due. Sim i larly loaf height, vol ume, spe cific vol ume and shelf life of bread in creased with in creased level of dried grape juice res i due as com pared with con trol sam ple (Ta ble 3). Ta ble 1: Per cent re cov ery of var i ous por tions of grape va ri ety ‘Punjab Pur ple’. Portions Percentage Juice Yield 50.0 Peel 12.7 seed 06.3 Wines 31.0 Edible part 69.0 Juice Residue 19.0 The earlier works reveal that bread with the ad di tion of GSE had stron ger an ti ox i dant ac tiv ity than that of blank bread, and in creas ing the level of GSE ad di tion fur ther en hanced the an ti ox i dant ca pac ity of the bread. How ever, ther mal pro cess ing caused an ti ox i dant ac tiv ity of GSE added to bread to de crease by around 30–40 per cent. Also the ef fect of GSE on the for ma tion of det ri men tal N-(carboxymethyl) lysine (CML), a fa mous ad vanced glycation end prod uct in bread was stud ied. Ac cord ing to the re sults, GSE could re duce CML in bread and acted in a dose-de pend ent man ner. Mean while, ex cept for an ac cept able col our change, add ing GSE to bread had only lit tle ef fect on the qual ity at trib utes of the bread. Al to gether, find ings in di cated that GSE-for ti fied bread was prom is ing to be de vel oped as a func tional food with rel a tively lower CML-re lated health risks, yet a high an ti ox i dant ac tiv ity. Changes in baking and sensory properties of wheat bread and muffins with the addition of grapes 23 Ta ble 2: Physico-chem i cal char ac ter is tics of grape juice and peel. Parameters Grape juice Grape peel Grape seed Total soluble solids(oB) 19.67 24.5 - Total solids (per cent) 18.2 22.0 - Acidity (per cent) 0.50 0.48 - Ascorbicacid (mg/100g) 8.13 18.09 - Anthocyanins (mg/100g) 5.47 15.07 - Total phenols (mg/g) - 34.68 37.5 Fig. 1: Effect of grape peel and seed on the baking quality of bread. Fig. 2: Effect of grape peel and seed on the baking quality of muffins. Ta ble 3: Ef fect of dif fer ent con cen tra tions of grape juice res i due on the qual ity of bread. Level (%) Weight (g) ± SD Height (cm) ± SD Volume (cc) ± SD Specific Volume ± SD Room Temp. (days) Refrige rator Temp. (days) Control 132.98 2.364494 9.47 0.25 677.33 2.52 5.08 0.096 7 27 2 141.39 1.624856 9.67 0.25 701.66 7.64 4.95 0.087 8 30 4 137.27 2.927526 10.07 0.25 692.33 2.52 5.03 0.108 8 32 Ta ble 4: Ef fect of dif fer ent con cen tra tions of grape juice res i due on the sen sory qual ity of Bread and Muffins. Bread Muffins Samples Appeara nce Texture Taste Overall acceptabi lity Appeara nce ± SD Texture ± SD Taste ± SD Overall acceptabi lity ± SD Control 7.75 7.50 7.63 7.63 8.75 0.83 8.50 0.91 8.63 0.97 8.25 0.33 2 per cent 7.63 7.63 7.88 7.88 8.25 0.56 8.00 0.22 8.32 0.67 8.00 0.55 4 per cent 8.50 8.33 8.33 8.33 8.50 0.72 8.25 0.51 8.88 0.45 8.50 0.31 24 Bhise et al. Sen sory eval u a tion of bread and muf fins Sig nif i cant vari a tions were found in over all ac cept abil ity of bread and muf fins pre pared af ter in cor po ra tion of dried grape juice res i due at dif fer ent level (Ta ble 4). Over all ac cept abil ity was more at 4 per cent grape peel (8.33) as com pared to con trol (7.63). Over all ac cept abil ity of muf fins pre pared af ter in cor po ra tion of dried grape juice res i due was found more at 4 per cent as com pared to con trol (Ta ble 4). CON CLU SION On ad di tion of grape peel and seed pow der to the bread at 2 per cent and 4 per cent in each showed the in crease in weight, vol ume, spe cific vol ume and shelf life. The shelf life of bread with grape peel and seed pow der was more than con trol. The ap pear ance, col our, tex ture and taste of bread with grape peel and seed pow der was more eye ap peal ing than con trol with higher sen sory scores REF ER ENCES 1. Bi anco, A. and Uccella N. (2000). Biophenolic com po nents of ol ives. Food Res. Int., 33(6):475-485. 2. Bonilla, F., Mayen, M. Merida, J. and Me dina M. (1999). Ex trac tion of phe no lic com pounds from red grape marc for use as food lipid an ti ox i dants. Food Chem., 66(2):209-215. 3. Gale (2009). Re tail Bak er ies. In: Group G, ed i tor. En cy clo pe dia of Amer i can In dus tries. On line Edi tion. Farmington Hills, Mich: Busi ness and Com pany Re source Cen ter. 4. Galet, P. (2002). Iden ti fy ing . . . the grape bunches. In: Montalbetti C, ed i tor. Hachette Wine Li brar ies Grape Va ri et ies. Lon don: Cassell Il lus trated. p. 32-35. 5. Hang, Y.D. and Woodams, E.E. (2008). Meth a nol con tent of grappa made from New York grape pomace. Bioresour. Technol., 99(9):3923-3925. 6. Inbar, Y., Chen, Y., Hadar, Y. and Verdonck O. (1988). Com post ing of ag ri cul tural wastes for their use as con tainer me dia-Sim u la tion of the Com post ing Pro cess. Bi o log i cal Wastes, 26(4):247-259. 7. Israilides, C., Smith, A., Harthill, J., Barnett, C., Bambalov, G. and Scanlon, B. (1998). Pullulan con tent of the eth a nol pre cip i tate from fer mented agro-in dus trial wastes. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol., 49:613-617. 8. Larmond, E. (1970). Meth ods of sen sory eval u a tion of food. Ca na dian Deptartment Ag ri cul tural Pub li ca tions, 1284. Ot tawa: 55-57. 9. Lem pert, P. (2008). ‘Healthy’ gains in breads. Facts, Fig ures, and the Fu ture. Food Mar ket ing In sti tute, p 1. 10. Moldes, D., Gallego, P., Ro dri guez-Couto. S. and Sanroman, A. (2003). Grape seeds: the best lignocellulosic waste to pro duce laccase by solid state cul tures of Trametes hirsuta. Biotechnol. Lett., 25:491-495. 11. Mul lins, M.G., Bou quet, A. and Wil liams, L.E. (1992). Grape vine Struc ture. Bi ol ogy of the Grape vine. Cam bridge, NY: Cam bridge Uni ver sity Press. p 37-79. 12. Rob in son, J. (2006). The Ox ford com pan ion to wine, 3 rd ed. Ox ford, NY: Ox ford Uni ver sity Press. 813 p 13. Saito, M., Hosoyama, H., Ariga, T., Kataoka, S. and Yamaji, N. (1998). Antiulcer ac tiv ity of grape seed ex tract and procyanidins. J. Agric. Food Chem., 46(4):1460-1464. 14. Schieber, A., Stintzing, F.C. and Carle, R. (2001). By-prod ucts of plant food pro cess ing as a source of func tional com pounds-re cent de vel op ments. Trend Food Sci. Technol., 12(11):401. 15. Shrikhande, A.J. (2000). Wine by-prod ucts with health ben e fits. Food Res. Int. 33(6):469-474. 16. Singh, S., Singh, T., Bansal, M.L. and Kumar, R. (1991). Sta tis ti cal Meth ods for Re search Work ers. Kalyani Pub lish ers, New Delhi. 17. Wang, R. and Zhou, W.B. (2004). Stability of tea catechins in the breadmaking process. J. Agric. Food Chem. 52(26):8224-8229. EF FECT OF GIBBERELLIC ACID ON PE RI OD I CAL CHANGES IN BIO-CHEM I CAL COM PO SI TION OF BER CV. UMRAN Rachna* and Sukhdev Singh De part ment of Hor ti cul ture, Fac ulty of Ag ri cul ture and For estry, Khalsa Col lege, Amritsar-143003, Punjab *E-mail:
[email protected] AB STRACT: The pres ent stud ies aimed at eval u at ing the ef fects of vary ing doses of GA 3 on the bio-chem i cal changes of ber fruit dur ing de vel op ment. GA 3 @ 10, 30 and 50 ppm was ap plied at fruit set stage and then su per im posed one month there af ter. The pe ri od i cal bio-chem i cal anal y ses of de vel op ing ber fruits re vealed that to tal sol u ble sol ids con cen tra tion in creases max i mum dur ing ini tial stages of fruit de vel op ment i.e. be tween in ter val of 25 to 50 days of GA 3 ap pli ca tion while to tal sug ars and ascor bic acid in crease and acid ity de creases as the fruit reaches ma tu rity i.e. be tween 75 to 100 days of GA 3 ap pli ca tion. The GA 3 50 ppm dose re sulted in max i mum ex pres sion of acid ity, to tal sug ars and ascor bic acid at fi nal har vest of ber. Thus it is im pli cated that GA 3 ap pli ca tion is ben e fi cial in im prov ing fla vour and taste of ber. Keywords: Ber, gibberellic acid, bio-chem i cal changes, acid ity, sugar con tent, in ter val. Ber (Zizyphus mauritiana Lamk.) is dis trib uted through out the trop i cal and sub-trop i cal re gions of the world. It is one of the most hardy fruit trees with wider adapt abil ity to ad verse soil and cli ma tic con di tions and thus is rec om mended for cul ti va tion on mar ginal land. In dia ranks first among the ber grow ing coun tries of the world. The fruit is equally rel ished by peo ple of all classes. A com par i son of nu tri tive value of ber and ap ple re veals that the ber is richer in the amount of pro tein, min eral mat ter, cal cium, phos pho rus, car o tene and vi ta min than that of ap ple. That’s why ber is re ferred to as ‘the ap ple of arid zone’. In Punjab, the flow er ing in ber starts from first week of Sep tem ber and con tin ues till first week of No vem ber, whereas the fruit set ting starts in sec ond week of Oc to ber. The most ac tive phase of fruit growth is first six weeks of fruit set (Bal and Mann, 2). Dur ing this time the de vel op ing fruits un dergo nu mer ous phys i cal and bio-chem i cal changes which in crease the fruit size and im prove the taste. The ap pli ca tion of growth reg u la tors like gibberellic acid (GA 3 ) is re ported to have pro found ef fects on im prov ing the fruit qual ity (Bal et al., 3, Kale et al., 8; Singh and Randhawa, 13; and Singh and Singh, 14). These ef fects are more pro nounced if the ap pli ca tion is done dur ing ac tive growth phase. In the pres ent stud ies the pe ri od i cal changes in bio-chem i cal com po si tion of ber fruits as brought about by vary ing doses GA 3 were eval u ated. MA TE RI ALS AND METH ODS The pres ent in ves ti ga tions were car ried out in the Fac ulty of Ag ri cul ture and For estry, Khalsa Col lege, GNDU, Amritsar dur ing the year 2007-08 and 2008-09. Eight years old trees of ber cv Umran with uni form size and vig our were se lected for the ex per i ment. The trees were sprayed dur ing ac tive growth phase in the 3rd week of Oc to ber and again su per im posed spray was ap plied one month there af ter. The growth reg u la tor i.e. gibberellic acid (GA 3 ) was ap plied in vary ing con cen tra tions i.e. 10, 30 and 50 ppm in ad di tion to wa ter sprayed con trol. There were three rep li ca tions each with one tree per rep li ca tion. The trees were sprayed uni formly by us ing knap sack sprayer with flood jet noz zle. Five uni form branches per tree were se lected and tagged. Af ter sec ond spray at 25 days in ter val (i.e. af ter 25 days, 50 days, 75 days, 100 days and then at har vest), the de vel op ing fruits were pe ri od i cally har vested and the ob ser va tions on four bio-chem i cal traits viz., to tal sol u ble sol ids (%), acid ity (%), to tal sug ars (%) and ascor bic acid (mg/100g) were re corded to eval u ate changes in Received : 20.12.2012 Accepted : 8.1.2013 HortFlora Research Spectrum, 2(1): 25-29 (Jan.-March 2013) ISSN : 2250-2823 26 Rachna and Singh chem i cal com po si tion of de vel op ing ber fruits. To re cord TSS per cent age, the juice of ten ran domly se lected fruits from each rep li ca tion was ex tracted and strained through a mus lin cloth and TSS con tent of juice was mea sured with the help of Bausch and Lomb hand refractometer. The val ues of to tal sol u ble sol ids were then cor rected to 20º C with the help of tem per a ture cor rec tion chart (AOAC, 1). To de ter mine cit ric acid per cent age, 10g of fruit pulp was ex tracted and ti trated against N/10 NaOH so lu tion us ing phenolphthalein as an in di ca tor. The to tal sug ars were es ti mated by Lane and Eynon method (AOAC, 1). The ascor bic acid was de ter mined by ti tra tion method us ing 10 g of fruit pulp mac er ated in 3 per cent meta phos pho ric acid so lu tion and ti trated against 2,6-dichloro- phenol indophenol dye. RE SULTS AND DIS CUS SION The data per tain ing to ef fect of vary ing con cen tra tions of GA 3 on TSS con tent of Umran ber (Ta ble 1 and Fig ure I) revealed that at the fi nal har vest, all the treat ments had im proved the TSS over con trol, which re vealed that ap pli ca tion of GA3 had di rect ef fect on as sim i la tion of met a bolic com pounds within the fruits which im proved TSS con trol and ul ti mately the fruit fla vour and taste. Im prove ment in TSS is very im por tant from pro cess ing point of view, as prod ucts like ber candy; Jelly, dried ber etc. have di rect as so ci a tion with TSS per cent age of the fruit. There was max i mum in crease in TSS with ap pli ca tion of GA 3 50 ppm fol lowed by GA 3 30 ppm. The pe ri odic in crease was sig nif i cant for all the treat ments as TSS in creased sig nif i cantly from 25 days to har vest, with the max i mum in crease ob tained from 25 to 50 days af ter sec ond spray. The stud ies cor rob o rated with the find ings of Bal et al. (3), Kale et al. (8), Singh and Randhawa (13), and Singh and Singh (14) who re ported ben e fi cial ef fects of GA 3 in im prov ing TSS of ber fruits. Among the bio-chem i cal fruit char ac ter is tics, acid ity is one of the most im por tant traits as it sig ni fies the char ac ter is tic tangy fla vor of ber fruit. On pe ri odic in ter vals, the acid ity de creased sig nif i cantly with ap pli ca tion of GA 3 as com pared to con trol (Ta ble 2 and Fig ure II). Sim i larly, all the treat ments dif fered sig nif i cantly among each other confirming to reports of Bankar and Prasad (4), Sandhu et al. (12) and Singh and Randhawa (13). The max i mum pe ri odic de crease in acid ity of fruits was seen in in ter val of 75 to 100 days af ter ap pli ca tion i.e. as the fruit reaches to wards ma tu rity the acid ity de creased. The de crease in acid ity to wards rip en ing may be at trib uted to faster move ment of po tas sium into fruits with GA 3 ap pli ca tion which in turn in creased the mem brane per me abil ity of cells al low ing res pi ra tion of stored ac ids within the cells, for ma tion of com plex com pounds of malic acid (Kliewer, 9) and re duced abil ity of fruits to syn the size or ganic ac ids to wards ma tu rity (Hardy, 7). Like TSS, the fla vour and taste of any fruit is largely de pend ent on the to tal sugar content of the fruit. The ap pli ca tion of GA 3 im proved the per cent age of to tal sug ars in ber fruit at fi nal har vest but the sig nif i cant im prove ment was brought about by only 50 ppm dose of GA 3 (Ta ble 2 and Fig ure III). Bhati and Yadav (5) and Masalkar and Wavhal (10) re ported sim i lar ben e fi cial ef fects of GA 3 in im prov ing fruit sug ars of ber. There was sig nif i cant pe ri odic in crease in sug ars con tent at ev ery in ter val with max i mum in crease re corded be tween 75 to 100 days in ter val i.e. to wards fruit ma tu rity. This in crease can be at trib uted to in crease in con cen tra tion of vol a tile com po nents con cen tra tion in fruits along with hy dro ly sis of starchy com pounds to wards ma tu rity. These hydrolytic changes usu ally lead to for ma tion of sug ars. The ex tent of these hydrolytic changes might have in creased with GA 3 ap pli ca tion. More over, the or ganic ac ids pres ent in fruits are translocated into sug ars to wards ma tu rity and this translocation is made faster with GA 3 ap pli ca tion (Drawert and Steffen, 6). Ber is one of the rich est sources of ascor bic acid and is val ued for in nu tri tional prop er ties. Like wise other bio chem i cal con stit u ents vi ta min C con tent is also di rectly in flu enced by ap pli ca tion of PGRs as is ex pressed in Ta ble 2 and Fig ure IV. There was sig nif i cant im prove ment in ascor bic acid con tent of ber fruits with GA 3 50 ppm how ever, in as so ci a tion to pres ent eval u a tions, GA 3 (10 and 25 ppm) when ap plied at slow growth phase ex hib ited the sig nif i cant in crease in ascor bic acid con tent of fruits (Pandey, 11, and Singh and Randhawa, 13). There was sig nif i cant pe ri odic im prove ment in ascor bic acid con tent with ev ery in ter val of 25 days. The max i mum in crease was no ticed to wards ma tu rity i.e. be tween 75 to 100 days in ter val. Sim i lar pe ri odic im prove ment in ascor bic acid of ber has been re ported by Sandhu et al. (12). Effect of gibberellic acid on periodical changes in bio-chemical composition of ber cv. Umran 27 Ta ble 1: Ef fect of GA 3 on TSS (%) and acid ity (%) of ber fruits dur ing de vel op ment. Treatment Parameter Days after second spray 2007-08 2008-09 25 50 75 100 At harvest 25 50 75 100 At harvest GA 3 10 ppm TSS 8.37 10.17 10.88 12.28 13.26 9.04 10.38 12.27 13.10 13.21 Acidity 0.46 0.38 0.33 0.27 0.24 0.45 0.37 0.37 0.25 0.22 GA 3 30 ppm TSS 8.90 10.91 12.22 13.23 14.62 8.63 11.37 12.40 13.41 15.00 Acidity 0.45 0.38 0.32 0.27 0.23 0.46 0.38 0.31 0.22 0.21 GA 3 50 ppm TSS 9.73 11.59 12.54 13.54 15.29 9.21 11.17 12.42 13.62 15.72 Acidity 0.42 0.36 0.29 0.21 0.16 0.46 0.37 0.30 0.23 0.17 Control TSS 8.78 10.13 11.22 12.08 12.60 9.06 10.15 10.94 12.83 13.19 Acidity 0.48 0.43 0.38 0.28 0.22 0.49 0.46 0.38 0.28 0.23 TSS (%) C.D. (P = 0.05) Acidity (%) Intervals (A) 0.43 Year (B) NS Intervals (A) 0.013 Year (B) NS Treatments (C) 0.38 AB NS Tratrments (C) 0.011 AB NS AC NS BC NS AC 0.025 BC 0.016 ABC NS NS ABC NS Ta ble 2: Ef fect of GA 3 on to tal sug ars (%) and ascor bic acid (mg/100g) of ber fruits dur ing de vel op ment. Treatment Parameter Days after second spray 2007-08 2008-09 25 50 75 100 At harvest 25 50 75 100 At harv est GA 3 10ppm Total sugars 2.25 3.09 4.86 7.32 7.86 2.81 3.74 5.18 7.18 7.77 Ascorbic acid 13.22 27.50 47.02 69.54 81.90 13.11 26.65 45.45 67.97 79.22 GA 3 30ppm Total sugars 2.62 3.52 4.97 7.14 8.34 2.58 3.77 5.08 7.20 8.60 Ascorbic acid 14.06 28.14 48.00 76.31 87.40 14.02 28.11 48.57 74.32 83.74 GA 3 50ppm Total sugars 3.06 4.01 5.63 8.08 8.91 2.53 3.49 5.65 8.27 8.90 Ascorbic acid 14.77 33.90 52.99 82.01 91.50 15.01 33.47 51.57 81.27 90.17 Control Total sugars 2.07 3.37 5.47 7.63 8.12 2.20 3.30 5.33 7.55 7.99 Ascorbic acid 14.44 30.99 41.81 72.05 79.51 13.22 30.70 41.49 71.92 80.91 TSS (%) C.D. (P = 0.05) Acidity (%) Intervals (A) 0.22 Year (B) NS Intervals (A) 1.79 Year (B) NS Treatments (C) 0.19 AB NS Tratrments (C) 1.60 AB NS AC 0.43 BC NS AC 3.59 BC NS ABC NS NS ABC NS 28 Rachna and Singh REF ER ENCES 1. A.O.A.C. (1980). Of fi cial Meth ods of Anal y sis. 13 th Ed., As so ci a tion of Of fi cial An a lyt i cal Chem ists. Wash ing ton D.C., USA. 2. Bal, J. S. and Mann, S. S. (1978). Ascor bic acid con tent of ber (Zizyphus mauritiana) dur ing growth and ma tu rity. Sci. and Cult., 44: 238-239. 3. Bal, J. S., Singh, S. N., Randhawa, J. S. and Jawanda, J. S. (1984). Effect of growth regulators on fruit drop, size and quality of ber. Indian J. Hort., 41: 182-85. 4. Bankar, G. J. and Prasad, R. N. (1990). Ef fect of gibberellic acid and NAA on fruit set and qual ity of ber (Zizyphus mauritiana Lamk.) cv. Gola. Prog. Hort., 22: 60-62. 5. Bhati, B. S. and Yadav, P. K. (2003). Ef fect of fo liar ap pli ca tion of urea and NAA on the qual ity of ber (Zizyphus mauritiana Lamk.) cv. Gola. Haryana J. Hortic. Sci., 32: 32-33. 6. Drawert, F. and Steffan, H., (1966). Bio- chemisch-physiologitche Untersuchungen on Traubenbeeren III. Stoff Wechsel von Zugefiihrten C 14 Verbindungen and ide Bedeutung des saure-Zucker-Metabolismus fur die Reifung Von Traubanbeern. Vitis, 5: 377-84. 7. Hardy, P. J. (1966). Me tab o lism of sug ars and or ganic ac ids in im ma ture grape ber ries. Plant Physiol., 43: 224-28. 8. Kale, V.S., Dod, V.N., Adpawar, R.M. and Bharad, S.G. (2000). Ef fect of plant growth reg u la tors on fruit char ac ters and qual ity of ber Fig. I : Effect of GA 3 on TSS (%) of ber fruits during development (pooled over both the seasons). Fig. II : Effect of GA 3 on acidity (%) of ber fruits during development (pooled over both the seasons). Fig. III : Effect of GA 3 on total sugars (%) of ber fruits during development (pooled over both the seasons). Fig. IV : Effect of GA 3 on ascorbic acid (mg/100g) of ber fruits during development (pooled over both the seasons). (Zizyphus mauritiana L.). Crop Res., 20(2): 327-33. 9. Kliwer, W.M. (1977). Ef fect of day tem per a ture and light in ten sity on con cen tra tion of malic and tar taric ac ids in Vitis vinifera L. grapes. J Amer Soc. Hort. Sci., 97: 372-77. 10. Masalkar, S.D. and Wavhal, K.N. (1991). Ef fect of var i ous growth reg u la tors on physico- chem i cal prop er ties of ber cv. Umran. Maharashtra J. Hort., 5 (2): 37-40 11. Pandey, V. (1999). Ef fect of NAA and GA3 spray on fruit re ten tion, growth, yield and qual ity of ber (Zizyphus mauritiana Lamk.) cv. Banarasi Ka raka. Orissa J. Hort., 27 (1): 69-73. 12. Sandhu, S.S., Thind, S.S. and Bal, J.S. (1990). Ef fect of NAA on physico-chem i cal char ac ters of Umran ber. Punjab Hort. J., 30 (1-4):123-30 13. Singh, K. and Randhawa, J.S. (2001). Ef fect of growth reg u la tors and fun gi cides on fruit drop, yield and qual ity of fruit in ber cv. Umran. J. Res. Punjab Agric. Univ., 38 (3-4): 181-84. 14. Singh, U. R. and Singh, N. (1976). Effect of plant regulators on fruit drop, size and quality of ber (Zizyphus mauritiana Lamk.) var. Banarasi. Haryana J. Hortic. Sci., 5: 1-8. Effect of gibberellic acid on periodical changes in bio-chemical composition of ber cv. Umran 29 EF FECT OF IBA CON CEN TRA TION ON IN DUC ING ROOT ING IN STEM CUT TINGS OF Thuja compecta UN DER MIST HOUSE CON DI TION K.K. Singh*, J.M.S. Rawat, Y.K. Tomar and Prabhat Kumar De part ment of Hor ti cul ture, Chauras Cam pus, HNB Garhwal Cen tral Uni ver sity, Srinagar (Garhwal) 246174, Uttarakhand, In dia *E-mail :
[email protected] AB STRACT:The ex per i ment was car ried out in ran dom ized block de sign at Hor ti cul tural Re search Cen tre, Chauras Cam pus, HNB Garhwal Uni ver sity Srinagar (Garhwal), Uttarakhand, In dia. Soft wood cut tings of T. compecta were col lected from 3 to 4 year old plants and 15 cm long cut tings with api cal por tion. The cut tings were treated with 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5g L -1 IBA so lu tions by quick dip method. Vermicompost was used as the root ing me dia. The tem per a ture of the vermicompost was 26 ± 2°C. Ex per i ment was con ducted in the mist house. Among all the treat ments, high est num ber of root per cut ting (19.67) was re corded un der 5g L -1 IBA con cen tra tion. The max i mum length of roots per cut ting (9.33 cm) was re corded un der 2g L -1 IBA con cen tra tion. The max i mum di am e ter of root per cut ting (0.20 cm) was ob served in 4g L -1 and 5g L -1 IBA con cen tra tion. Max i mum (82.70%) roots per rooted cut ting was ob served in 5g L -1 IBA con cen tra tion. The min i mum (23.67 days) taken to cal lus for ma tion was no ticed in 4g L -1 IBA con cen tra tion. Keywords : Soft wood cut ting, IBA, Thusa compecta, root ing per cent, quick dip. Thuja compecta, com monly known as White- Ce dar or Ar bor vi tae or North ern White-Ce dar, a mem ber of Cupressaceae fam ily is a na tive to North Amer ica. Thuja plants are planted in parks and gar dens, due to its dec o ra tive as pect and can be eas ily mod eled into dif fer ent and de sired shapes. In or na men tal ar range ments it is usu ally found as shrub reaching upto 20 m heights. The char ac ter is tics of this plant are erect stalk, with red dish-brown bark that exfoliates in long stripes. The pyr a mid shaped co rona con sists of a great num ber of branches al most equal in length. The stems are com pressed, dis posed hor i zon tally and oblique, dark green on the up per part and light green on the back side with out any white spots. The scale-shaped leaves are op po sitely dis posed pre sent ing on the back side a prom i nent resin gland. Dur ing win ter the fo liage turn into a rusty col our. Flow ers are uni sex ual – monoecious and the cones are nar row and oval-shaped, 1-1.5 cm long, hav ing about 3-6 pairs of imbricated, shinny, yel low ish- brown, dry, mucronated scales Thuja is an an cient rem edy for sev eral types of ail ments, this prep a ra tion should be used with cau tion due to its strength and toxic prop er ties. T. occidentalis is widely used as an ornamental tree, par tic u larly for screens and hedges, in gar dens, parks and cem e ter ies. Oc ca sion ally thuja trees are prop a gated through seeds, but can also be eas ily prop a gated us ing veg e ta tive meth ods, the most com mon be ing heel cut tings (Posta and Hernea, 9). Hard wood cut tings of T. occidentalis can be rooted in mid win ter un der mist in the green house. Best root ing is of ten found with cut tings taken from older plants that are no lon ger mak ing rapid growth. The cut tings should be about 20 cm (6 inch) long and may be taken ei ther from suc cu lent, vig or ously grow ing ter mi nals or from more ma ture side growth sev eral years old. Wound ing and treat ing with 3,000 to 8,000 ppm IBA quick-dip or talc is ben e fi cial. No shad ing should be used. Cut tings may also be made in mid sum mer and rooted out-of-doors in a shaded, closed frame. Over all root ing for soft wood, semi-hard wood, and hard wood, cut tings was 85%, 86%, and 96%, re spec tively. Semi-hard wood cut tings were the only cut tings in which per cent root ing was af fected by IBA treat ment or cut ting type, with lat eral cut tings root ing in higher per cent ages than ter mi nal cut tings (92% vs. 79%, re spec tively), while IBA Received : 27.11.2012 Accepted : 16.12.2012 HortFlora Research Spectrum, 2(1): 30-34 (Jan.-March 2013) ISSN : 2250-2823 con cen tra tions of 3000 (0.3%) or 6000 ppm (0.6%) proved op ti mal for both cut ting types (Grif fin et al., 4). MA TE RI ALS AND METH ODS The pres ent in ves ti ga tion was con ducted in the mist house lo cated at the Hor ti cul tural Re search Cen tre, HNB Garhwal Uni ver sity, Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand, In dia. The re search cen tre is sit u ated in the Alaknanda val ley at 30° 13’ 25.26’’ N and 78° 48’ 04.93’’ E and 563 m above mean sea level, and ex hib its a sub trop i cal cli mate with dry sum mer and rig or ous win ters with oc ca sional dense fog in the morn ing hours from mid De cem ber to mid Feb ru ary. The av er age tem per a ture and rel a tive hu mid ity in side the mist house dur ing ex per i ment was 35 ± 3°C and 75 ± 5%, re spec tively. The soil tem per a ture mea sured was around 26 ± 2°C. Soft wood cut tings of T. compecta were col lected from 3 to 4 year old plants and 15 cm long cut tings with api cal por tion. Vermicompost was used as the root ing me dia. It was filled in the root train ers of size 15 ´ 15 cm. There were six treat ments of growth reg u la tor for mu la tions used at dif fer ent con cen tra tions; twenty cut tings were used for each treat ment which was rep li cated thrice. The pre pared cut tings were planted in pots af ter dip ping in so lu tions of IBA at 1g L -1 , 2g L -1 , 3g L -1 , 4g L -1 and 5g L -1 . The ex per i ment was laid out in ran dom ized block de sign and rep li cated thrice with 10 cut tings in each treat ment. Ex per i ment was con ducted in the mist house which had the ar range ment for in ter mit tent mist ing to 60 sec onds at ev ery 10 min utes in ter val be tween 8 AM and 8 PM. The basal 1.5-2.0 cm por tion of the cut tings was dipped in growth reg u la tor so lu tion for 10 min utes and im me di ately planted in me dium to a depth of 6-8 cm. Af ter cut tings were planted, the mist ing was started. The planted cut tings were al lowed to root for 90 days. The cut tings (nine num bers per treat ment per rep li ca tion) were care fully re moved from the pots and dipped in wa ter to re move the soil par ti cles ad her ing to roots to re cord the ob ser va tions per tain ing to roots viz., days taken for cal lus for ma tion, to tal length of cut ting, num ber of roots/cut ting, length of roots/cut ting, di am e ter of roots/cut ting and per cent age of cut ting rooted. The data re corded were sub jected to sta tis ti cal anal y sis for least sig nif i cant dif fer ence (RBD) as de scribed by Snedecor and Cochran (12). RE SULTS AND DIS CUS SION A pe rusal of Figure 1 and Table 1 shows that the ef fect of dif fer ent con cen tra tions of IBA sig nif i cantly af fected the var i ous growth char ac ters of leafy cut tings in Thuja compecta. Among IBA con cen tra tions, 5g L -1 con cen tra tion of IBA showed the high est per cent age of rooted cut ting (82.700%) fol lowed by 4g L -1 con cen tra tion of IBA. The min i mum per cent age of rooted cut ting (7.167%) was re corded un der con trol. The en hance hydrolytic ac tiv ity in pres ence of ap plied IBA cou pled with Effect of IBA concentration on inducing rooting in stem cuttings of Thuja compecta under mist house condition 31 Table1: Ef fect of IBA con cen tra tion on root ing of Thusa compecta. Treatment Total length of cutting Number of roots Length of roots Diameter of root Rooting % Callus IBA 1g L -1 29.333 a 0.667 b 0.967 c 0.067b c 45.433 e 53.000 b IBA 2g L -1 31.000 a 8.667 b 9.333 a 0.133 b 54.333 d 49.667 c IBA 3g L -1 26.667 a 7.000 b 8.000 a 0.167 a 66.733 c 30.000 d IBA 4g L -1 27.667 a 7.667 b 4.667 ab 0.200 a 80.000 b 23.667 e IBA 5g L -1 29.000 a 19.667 a 5.767 ab 0.200 a 82.700 a 25.000 e Control 26.833 a 0.333 b 0.333 c 0.033 c 7.167 f 69.333 a CD (P = 0.05) 8.087 9.898 5.277 0.088 2.057 3.232 Means followed by same letter within each column are not significant (P < 0.05). 32 Singh et al. ap pro pri ate plant ing time might be re spon si ble for the in creased per cent age of rooted cut tings. High car bo hy drate and low ni tro gen have been re ported to fa vour root for ma tion (Carlson, 2). These find ing are agreed with the find ing of Bose et al. (1) in Bou gain vil lea. The max i mum av er age length of roots per cut ting (9.333 cm) was re corded un der 2g L -1 concentration of IBA fol lowed by 3g L -1 con cen tra tion of IBA, while the min i mum av er age length of roots per cut ting (0.333 cm) was re corded un der con trol set. Auxin ap pli ca tion has been found to en hance the histological fea tures like for ma tion of cal lus and tis sue and dif fer en ti a tion of vas cu lar tis sue (Mitra and Bose, 7). These find ing were Figure 1: Effect of IBA on callus formation, rooting %, number of roots, length of roots, diameter of roots and total length of cutting in Thuja compecta cuttings. sim i lar to Panwar et al. (8) in Bou gain vil lea cv. Alok with re spect to length of roots per cut ting. The high est num ber of root per cut ting (19.667) was re corded un der IBA 5g L -1 concentration of IBA fol lowed by IBA 2g L -1 con cen tra tion of IBA while the min i mum num ber of root per cut ting (0.333) was re corded un der con trol dur ing pres ent in ves ti ga tions. The en hanced hydrolytic ac tiv ity in pres ence of ap plied IBA cou pled with ap pro pri ate plant ing time might be re spon si ble for the in crease num ber of pri mary root per cut ting (Carlson, 2). These find ing are agreed with the find ing of Bose et al. (1) and Singh et al. (11) in Bou gain vil lea, with re spect to high est num ber of root per cut ting. The max i mum av er age di am e ter of thick est root (0.200 cm) was re corded un der 4g L -1 and 5g L -1 con cen tra tion of IBA fol lowed by 3g L -1 con cen tra tion of IBA and the min i mum av er age di am e ter of thick est root (0.033 cm) was re corded un der con trol. Ac cord ing to Thimmappa and Bhattacharjee (13), auxins nat u rally oc cur ring or ex og e nously ap plied are re quired for ini ti a tion of ad ven ti tious roots on stems. It ap pears prob a ble that the suc cess of IBA is due to its low auxin ac tiv ity and its slow deg ra da tion by auxin de stroy ing en zyme. These find ing are agreed with the find ing of Mahros (5) in Bou gain vil lea glabra cv. Var ie gate. Among IBA con cen tra tions, 2g L -1 con cen tra tion of IBA showed the to tal length of cut ting (31.000 cm) fol lowed by 1g L -1 con cen tra tion of IBA. The min i mum to tal length of cut ting (26.667 cm) was re corded un der 3g L -1 con cen tra tion of IBA. The find ings of Singh et al. (10) also re ported sim i lar re sults in re spect to to tal length of cut ting. The minimum days (23.67 days) taken to callus formation in softwood cuttings of T. compecta was noticed under IBA concentration at 4g L -1 and maximum days (69.34 days) taken was found with control set of cuttings after insertion in to the rooting medium. Auxin application has been found to enhance the histological features like formation of callus and tissue and differentiation of vascular tissue (Mitra and Bose, 7). These finding Effect of IBA concentration on inducing rooting in stem cuttings of Thuja compecta under mist house condition 33 Plate 1: Root formation in Thusa compecta with IBA treatments. 34 Singh et al. are agreed with the finding of Mishra and Sharma (6) in Bougainvillea cv. Dr. R. R. Pal. CON CLU SION Among var i ous con cen tra tion of IBA, 5g L -1 con cen tra tion of IBA show the best per for mance in terms on high est per cent age of rooted cut ting, high est num ber of root per cut ting, max i mum av er age di am e ter of thick est root while av er age length of root per cut ting, to tal length of cut ting was re corded un der 2g L -1 con cen tra tion of IBA. Hence 5g L -1 IBA was found most ef fec tive for the root ing of Thuja cut ting and may be used by nurs ery man for easy and faster mul ti pli ca tion of Thuja compecta. REF ER ENCES 1. Bose, T.K., Singh, P.K. and Bose, S. (1968). Prop a ga tion of trop i cal or na men tal plants from cut ting un der mist. In dian J. Hort., 27: 213-217. 2. Carlson, M.C., (1929). Mi cro-chem i cal stud ies of root ing and cut tings. Bot. Gaz., 87: 64. 3. Chang, L.C. Song L.L. and Park, E.J. (2000). Bioactive con stit u ents of Thuja occidentalis. J. Nat. Prod. 63: 1235–8. 4. Grif fin, J.J., Blazich, F.A. and Ranney, T.G. (1998). Prop a ga tion of Thuja x ‘Green Gi ant’ by Stem Cut tings Ef fects of Growth Stage, Type of Cut ting, and IBA treat ment. J. En vi ron. Hort., 16(4):212-214. 5. Mahros, O.M. (2002). Rootability and growth of some types of Bou gain vil leas cut ting un der IBA stim u la tion. Assiut. J. Agri. Sci., 31(1):19-37. 6. Mishra, S.N. and Sharma. C.P. (1995). Ef fect of plant growth reg u la tors on root ing of stem of Bougainvillea, http.//www.chow.com/thuja. 7. Mitra, G.C. and Bose, N. (1954). Root ing and histological re sponses of de tached leaves to B- Indolebutyric acid with spe cial ref er ence to Boerhavia diffusa Linn. Phytomorphology, 7:370. 8. Panwar, R.D., Gupta, A.K., Sharma, J.R. and Rakesh (1994). Ef fect of growth reg u la tors on root ing in Bou gain vil lea var. Alok. Int. J.Trop. Agri., 12:255-61. 9. Posta, D. S. and Hernea, C. (2008). Re searches Con cern ing The Pro duc tion of Plant ing Ma te rial us ing veg e ta tive prop a ga tion on Thuja plicata D. Don. (Sin. T. gigantea Nutt.). Bul le tin UASVM, Hor ti cul ture, 65(1): 217-220. 10. Singh, B., Singh, S. and Singh, G. (2009). In flu ence of plant ing time and IBA on root ing and growth of pome gran ate (Punica granatum l.) ‘Ganesh’ cut tings. Acta Hort. 890: II In ter na tional Sym po sium on Pome gran ate and Mi nor-in clud ing Med i ter ra nean. 11. Singh, K.K. Rawat, J.M.S. and Tomar, Y.K. (2011). In flu ence of IBA on root ing po ten tial of Torch Glory Bou gain vil lea glabra dur ing win ter sea son. J. Hor tic. Sci . & Or na . Plants, 3 (2): 162-165. 12. Snedecor, G.W. and Cochran, W.G. (1968). Sta tis ti cal Meth ods. Ox ford and IBH Pub. CO. Kolkata. 469p. 13. Thimmappa, D.K. and Bhattacharjee, S.K. (1990). Stan dard iza tion of prop a ga tion of scented ge ra nium from stem cut tings. In dian Perf., 34: 56-60. EF FECT OF SOME IN DIG E NOUS PLANT EX TRACTS ON THE IN HI BI TION OF EGG HATCH ING OF NEM A TODE Meloidogyne In cog nita Chitwood IN FEST ING MUL BERRY N. Vijaya Kumari* and M. Lakshmi Devi De part ment of Seri cul ture, Sri Padmavati Mahila Visvavidyalayam, Tirupati-517 502, Andhra Pradesh *E-mail: vijji nelaballe@ya hoo.co.in AB STRACT: Root knot dis ease caused by the nem a tode Meloidogyne in cog nita is one of the ma jor dis eases of Mul berry, Morus spp. which causes major reduction in yield affecting both quality as well as quantity of leaves and fruits. Plants pro duce a high di ver sity of sec ond ary me tab o lites for self de fense and sur vival in their hab i tat. Some of the plants are known to be in hib it ing the de vel op ment of the nem a todes. The pres ent study was car ried out to screen the lo cally avail able plants for their nematicidal ac tiv ity. Twelve plants spe cies were se lected and meth a nol ex tracts with dif fer ent con cen tra tions (25, 50, 75 and 100%) of dif fer ent plants were tested for in hi bi tion of hatch ing of M. in cog nita egg and ju ve nile mor tal ity in dif fer ent du ra tions. The plant ex tracts of Neem, Clitoria ternatea and Passiflora foetida were re corded to be highly effective for in hi bi tion of hatch ing of egg and increasing ju ve nile mor tal ity of M. in cog nita. Which will be im mense help ful to re duce the qual i ta tive and quan ti ta tive loss of mul berry leaf and fruit with eco-friendly plant ex tract. Keywords: Meloidogyne in cog nita, ju ve nile mor tal ity, egg hatch ing, nematicidal ac tiv ity. Mul berry, Morus spe cies is com mer cially im por tant plant and its leaves are used for rear ing of silk worm, Bombyx mori and hor ti cul tural value as fruits. Among the dis eases of mul berry, root knot dis ease caused by the nem a tode Meloidogyne in cog nita Chitwood is the ma jor one which causes 10-12% leaf yield loss be sides caus ing de ple tion in nu tri tive value (Govindaiah et al., 4). Nem a tode in fested plants show typ i cal symp toms like root gall ing, stunted growth, nu tri ent de fi ciency par tic u larly ni tro gen de fi ciency (Siddiqui et al., 9). Chem i cal con trol is ex pen sive and is eco nom i cally vi a ble only for high value crops and cre ates a po ten tial haz ard to the en vi ron ment and hu man health (Tsay et al., 12). Plant prod ucts a high di ver sity of sec ond ary me tab o lites for self de fense and sur vival in their hab i tat. A wide va ri ety of plant spe cies, rep re sent ing 57 fam i lies have been shown to nematicidal com pounds (Sukul, 10), which in cludes isothiocynates, thiophenics glycosides, al ka loids, phenolics and fatty ac ids (Gommers, 3). Plant ex tracts showed nematicidal ac tiv ity i.e. in hi bi tion egg hatchting and ju ve nile mor tal ity of Meloidogyne in cog nita by Neem leaf ex tract in to mato (Mukhtar et al., 6, and Dash and Pradhi, 2), by shoot and root ex tracts of Ocimum sanc tum (Akhtar and Farzana, 1), Pongamia leaf ex tracts (Sharma et al., 8) and Annona leaf ex tracts (Poornima et al., 7). The leaf ex tracts of Prosopios juliflora, Abutilon indicum, Datura, Tridax procumbens, Xan thium indicum on the in hi bi tion of nem a tode Pratilenchus coffeae in ba nana (Sundararaju and Cannayane, 11) had also shiwed in hibitary effects. The ef fect of leaf ex tracts of Glyricidia maculata, Ricinus communis and Cratolaria juncea were le thal to Radopholus similis at di lu tions of 1:5 within 24 hr and nem a tode mor tal ity de creased with in crease in di lu tions of the ex tract (Jasy and Koshy, 5). Hence, the pres ent study was con ducted to screen some lo cally avail able plant spe cies for their nematicidal prop er ties against root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne in cog nita, infesting mulbery. MA TE RI ALS AND METH ODS Twelve plants namely Abutilon indicum Linn. (T 1 ), Azadirachta in dica Linn (T 2 ), Datura stramonium Linn. (T 3 ), Prosopis juliflora Sw. (T 4 ), Tridax procumbens Linn. (T 5 ), Xan thium indicum Linn. (T 6 ), Annona squamosa Linn. (T 7 ), Ricinus Received : 30.1.2013 Revised : 20.2.2013 Accepted : 25.2.2013 HortFlora Research Spectrum, 2(1): 35-39 (Jan.-March 2013) ISSN : 2250-2823 36 Kumari and Devi cummunis Linn. (T 8 ), Ocimum sanc tum Linn. (T 9 ), Pongamia pinnata Linn. (T 10 ), Clitoria ternatea Linn. (T 11 ) and Passiflora foetida Linn. (T 12 ) were se lected for the pres ent study. Thsese plants were se lected mainly from the uni ver sity cam pus. Leaves were col lected from the se lected plants and were shade dried. Leaf pow der was pre pared for each se lected plant with the help of grinder. Meth a nol ex tracts of leaves were pre pared us ing Soxh let ap pa ra tus. The ex tract was dis solved in Meth a nol (1:10) w/v and stock so lu tion was pre pared. Dif fer ent con cen tra tions (25, 50, 75 and 100 %.) of plant ex tracts were pre pared us ing dis tilled wa ter. Nem a tode cul ture main te nance: Three months be fore the study, Meloidogyne in cog nita cul ture was main tained by rais ing to mato seed lings in earthen pots filled with ster il ized soil and farm yard ma nure. When to mato seed lings were well es tab lished (one month of seed sow ing) ju ve nile nem a todes were col lected from nem a tode in fested mul berry gar den by bayermann’s fun nel tech nique and to mato seed lings were in oc u lated with 500 ju ve niles /seed ling. Pure nem a tode cul ture was ob tained af ter 3 months main te nance and uti lized for pres ent study. Stud ies on nem a tode egg hatch ing and ju ve nile mor tal ity: Ma ture nem a tode egg masses (containing 100 to 105 eggs) were taken in petri plates @ 5 egg masses/plate of con tain ing 5ml/plate dif fer ent con cen tra tions of plant ex tracts. The same pro ce dure was follwed for all the ten plants and con trol (Dis tilled wa ter). The egg masses were kept for hatch ing and hatch ing per cent age was cal cu lated af ter 24, 48 and 72 hrs for each lot. The treatments were replicated thrice and nematode egg inhibition percentage was calculated taking the average of five egg masses. RE SULTS AND DIS CUS SION Data (Table 1) re vealed that all plant ex tracts showed nematicidal ac tiv ity by af fect ing the hatch ing of eggs of root knot nem a tode, Meloidogyne in cog nita Chitwood (Fig. 1). The hatch ing of nem a tode eggs was ob served to be vary ing af ter 24, 48 and 72 hrs in dif fer ent con cen tra tions in dif fer ent plant ex tracts. The high est per cent age of egg hatch ing in hi bi tion was re corded in Azadirachta in dica leaf ex tract treated lots (99.00%) at 100 per cent con cen tra tion of ex tract fol lowed by Clitoria ternatea (93.3%), Passiflora foetida (92.4%), Prosopis juliflora ((87.7%), Abutilon indicum (82.0%), Datura stramonium (75.9%), Ricinus communis (73.8%), Xan thium indicum (70.8%), Ocimum sanc tum (70.5%), Tridax procumbens (68.5), Annona squamosa (66.6%) and Pongamia pinnata (59.17%), af ter 72 hr of ap pli ca tion. The im pact of plant ex tracts is dose (con cen tra tion) and time de pend ent. In this study it was ob served that Passiflora foetida and Clitoria ternatea were at par with Azadirachta in dica in is in hib it ing nem a tode egg hatch ing. In pres ent find ings all plant ex tracts showed nematicidal ac tiv ity by in hib it ing of eggs hatch ing and ju ve nile mor tal ity of nem a tode Meloidogyne in cog nita caus ing root knot dis ease of mul berry and are inconformity with the re ports of Mukhtar et al. (6), and Dash and Pradhi (2) who ob served the ef fect of Neem leaf ex tracts on nem a tode Meloidogyne in cog nita in ci dence in to mato. The in ci dence of M. in cog nita was also re duced by shoot and root ex tracts of Ocimum sanc tum (Akhtar and Farzana, 1), Pongamia leaf ex tracts (Sharma et al., 8) and Annona leaf ex tracts (Poornima and Vadivelu, 7) which sup ported pres ent find ings. The leaf ex tracts of Prosopios juliflora, Abutilon indicum, Datura, Tridax procumbens, Xan thium indicum showed the in hi bi tion of nem a tode Pratilenchus coffeae in ba nana (Sundararaju and Cannayane, 11). In the pres ent study it was re corded that ef fect plant ex tracts on in hi bi tion of hatch ing of eggs of M. in cog nita was dose and time de pend ent and re sults are in con for mity with the re port of Jasy and Koshy (5) that the ef fect of leaf ex tracts of Glyricidia maculata, Ricinus communis and Crotolaria juncea were le thal to Radopholus similis at di lu tions of 1:5 within 24 hr Effect of some indigenous plant extracts on the inhibition of egg hatching of nematode 37 Ta ble 1. Ef fect of dif fer ent plant ex tracts with dif fer ent con cen tra tions at dif fer ent du ra tion on hatch ing of eggs of Meloidogyne in cog nita Chitwood. Name of the plants Duration (hours) Inhibition of Egg hatching (%) Concentration of plant extract (%) 100% 75% 50% 25% Abutilon indicum Linn. (T 1 ) 24 11.00 16.30 20.10 25.10 48 15.40 19.20 24.30 28.90 72 18.40 20.20 26.80 30.10 Azadirachta indica Linn. (T 2 ) 24 0.00 1.20 2.30 5.00 48 0.00 3.50 5.40 8.10 72 1.00 6.50 8.40 10.50 Datura stramonium Linn. (T 3 ) 24 13.30 19.30 25.60 29.90 48 19.80 23.90 29.70 31.00 72 24.60 27.70 31.00 35.60 Prosopis juliflora Sw. (T 4 ) 24 6.50 9.40 14.80 18.40 48 8.30 12.40 16.90 24.80 72 12.50 16.80 19.00 28.50 Tridax procumbens Linn. (T 5 ) 24 21.80 27.40 30.00 34.70 48 30.50 31.90 39.60 41.50 72 32.20 33.40 42.10 46.60 Xanthium indicum Linn. (T 6 ) 24 17.60 21.00 28.90 35.40 48 26.50 28.90 34.00 36.80 72 29.80 33.50 38.70 39.60 Annona squamosa Linn. (T 7 ) 24 23.90 29.40 31.10 35.60 48 31.60 32.90 40.60 41.60 72 34.20 33.40 42.10 46.60 Ricinus cummunis Linn. (T 8 ) 24 14.10 20.30 27.60 31.90 48 22.00 24.70 30.70 33.20 72 26.80 29.70 33.00 37.60 Ocimum sanctum Linn. (T 9 ) 24 19.80 24.60 29.50 33.70 48 28.10 30.90 38.60 40.40 72 30.20 36.50 41.10 45.60 Pongamia pinnata Linn. (T 10 ) 24 25.50 3.40 7.80 10.80 48 36.20 6.10 10.00 15.40 72 41.92 7.20 12.50 18.30 Clitoria ternatea Linn. (T 11 ) 24 2.90 3.60 8.80 10.80 48 4.70 6.10 11.00 16.40 72 6.80 7.90 14.50 19.30 Passiflora foetida Linn. (T 12 ) 24 4.90 5.60 9.00 11.50 48 6.70 6.90 13.00 16.90 72 7.70 9.00 14.50 20.30 Control 24 75.80 48 81.50 72 98.40 38 Kumari and Devi and nem a tode mor tal ity de creased with in crease in di lu tions of the ex tract. REF ER ENCES 1. Akhtar Haseeb and Farzana Butool (1990). Eval u a tion of nematicidal prop er ties in some mem bers of the fam ily Lamiaceae. Intl. Nematol. Net work Newsl., 7(2): 24-26. 2. Dash, B. and Pradhi, N.N. (1998). Rel a tive ef fects of neem prod ucts against root knot nem a tode on to mato. In dian. J. Nematol., 28(2):163-167 3. Gommers, F.G. (1973). Nematicidal prin ci ples in Compositae. Mededelingen Landbouwhoges school, Wageningen. The Nethherlands, 17:71-33 4. Govindaiah, Dandin, S.B. and Sharama, D.D. (1991). Patho ge nic ity and avoid able leaf yield loss due to Meloidogyne in cog nita in mul berry (Morus alba. L). In dian J. Nematol., 21:52-57 0.00 20.00 40.00 60.00 80.00 100.00 120.00 T 1 T 2 T 3 T 4 T 5 T 6 T 7 T 8 T 9 T 1 0 T 1 1 T 1 2 C o n t r o l Different plant extracts I n h i b i t i o n o f e g g s h a t c h i n g ( % ) 100% 75% 50% 25% Control Fig.1. Impact of different plant extracts on inhibition of eggs hatching of Meloidogyne incognita Chitwood after 72 hours. T 1 : Abutilon indicum Linn., T 2 : Azadirachta indica Linn, T 3 :Datura stramonium Linn.,T 4 : Prosopis juliflora Sw., T 5 : Tridax procumbens Linn.,T 6 : Xanthium indicum Linn., T 7 : Annona squamosa Linn., T 8 : Ricinus cummunis Linn., T 9 : Ocimum sanctum Linn., T 10 : Pongamia pinnata Linn, T 11 : Clitoria ternatea Linn., T 12 : Passiflora foetida Linn and control. Plate 1 : Photographs of root knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita infesting mulberry roots. 5. Jasy, R. and Koshy, P.K. (1992). Ef fect of cer tain leaf ex tracts and leaves of Glyricidia maculate (HB&K) Steud as green ma nure on Rodophylus similis. In dian. J. Nematol., 22: 117-121. 6. Mukhtar, T., Ahmad, R.R, M.Inam-ul-Haqand and Javed, N. (1994). Ef fect of leaf ex tracts of some plants on Meloidogyne in cog nita. Pa ki stan J. Phytopathol., 6: 35-37. 7. Poornima, K. and Vadivelu, S. (1990). Com par a tive ef fi cacy of nematicides, oil cakes and plant ex tracts in the man age ment of Meloidogyne in cog nita, Pratylenchus delattrei and Rotyenchulus reniformis on brin jal. In dian. J. Nematol., 20: 170-173. 8. Sharma, R., Sharma, K. and Patel, Y.M. (2012). Nematicidal and pre ven tive ef fect of Pongamia pinnata and Thevetia peruviana leaf ex tracts and pow der against Meloidogyne in cog nita. J. Adv. De vel op men tal Res., 3 (1) 2012: 52-55 9. Siddiqui, Z.A., Iqbal, A. and Mahmood, I. (2001). Ef fect of Pseu do mo nas fluorescens and fer til iz ers on the re pro duc tion of Meloidogyne in cog nita and growth of to mato. Ap plied Soil Ecol., 16(2): 179-185. 10. Sukul, N. C. (1992). Plant an tag o nis tic to plant par a sitic nem a todes. In dian Rev. Life Sci., 12: 23-52. 11. Sundararaju, P. and Cannayane, I. (2002). Antinemic ac tiv ity of plant ex tracts against Pratylenchus coffeae in fect ing Ba nana. In dian J. Nematol., 32(2) : 121-124. 12. Tsay, T.T., Wu, T.S. and Lin, Y.Y. (2004). Evaluation of Asteraceae plant for control of Meloidogyne incognita. J. Nematol., 36: 36-41. Effect of some indigenous plant extracts on the inhibition of egg hatching of nematode 39 IN FLU ENCE OF NI TRO GEN AND PHOS PHO RUS FER TIL IZ ERS WITH NI TRO GEN SOURCES ON FLO RAL PA RAM E TERS OF TUBEROSE (Polianthes tuberosa L.) A.P.S. Gangwar*, J.P. Singh and Indra Pal Singh De part ment of Hor ti cul ture, Chandra Sekhar Azad Uni ver sity of Ag ri cul ture and Tech nol ogy, Kanpur (U.P.) *E-mail :
[email protected]. AB STRACT: An ex per i ment was laid out dur ing two con sec u tive years in Hor ti cul ture gar den of Chandra Shekhar Azad Uni ver sity of Ag ri cul ture and Tech nol ogy Kanpur. There were three ni trog e nous sources viz. urea, am mo nium sul phate and cal cium ammonium ni trate, four lev els of ni tro gen viz. 0, 50,100 and 150 kg/ha and four lev els of phos pho rus viz. 0,100,200 and 300 kg/ha, thus a total of fourty treat ments were taken. The re sults showed that emer gence of skipe un der the in flu ence of N sources ranged from 97.27-98.35 and 95.58-97.91 days dur ing first and sec ond year of study. Cal cium am mo nium ni trate caused 1.08 and 2.33 days ear lier spike emer gence than urea treat ment. Ni tro gen ap plied@ 150kg/ha proved more ef fec tive in de lay ing spike emer gence but 300kg/ha phos pho rus in duced ear li est emer gence. Length and width of spikes was im proved with am mo nium sul phate fol lowed by CAN re corded 78.19 and 80.99 cm long and 0.88 and 0.90 cm thick spikes, re spec tively. Ni tro gen ap plied @150 kg/ha caused 78.16 and 81.14 cm length of spike and 0.88 and 0.89 cm thick spikes in first and second year, respectively. Length of rachis was reg is tered 1.45 and 1.65 cm lon ger un der am mo nium sul phate. 150 kg ni tro gen per hect are max i mized length of rachis (26.74,27.85 cm) whereas, phos pho rus @ 300kg/ha re vealed max i mum (26.26 and 27.38 cm) length of rachis. Num ber of flower max i mum in flu enced by CAN re vealed 39.69 and 40.83 flow ers dur ing both years. Ni tro gen @ 150kg/ha max i mized (40.80 and 41.20) num ber of flow ers. Fer til iza tion with cal cium am mo nium ni trate ex hib ited lon gest blos som ing du ra tion. Du ra bil ity of spike in creased con sis tently with in crease in ni tro gen lev els up to 150/ha dose re cord ing 21.41, 22.39 days du ra tion dur ing both ex per i men tal years. Phosphrous @ 200kg pro longed self life by 3.46 and 2.67 days when com pared with con trol reg is ter ing 20.89 and 22.33 days du ra bil ity. Keywords: Ni tro gen, phos pho rus, urea, am mo nium sul phate, cal cium am mo nium ni trate, rachis length. Tuberose, Polianthes tuberosa Linn. is na tive of Maxico and cul ti vated on large scale in many trop i cal and sub-trop i cal ar eas in clud ing In dia. It is however, adapted to North In dian cli ma tic con di tions yet it grows well in Uttar Pradesh. Tuberose oc cu pies very se lec tive spe cial po si tion among or na men tal bul bous plants to flower lov ing peo ple be cause of its pret ti ness, el e gance and pleas antly sweet fra grance. Inspite of great or na men tal im por tance, it has great eco nomic po ten tial for cut flower trade and es sen tial oil in dus try (Sadhu and Bose, 10). MA TE RI ALS AND METH ODS The pres ent investigations were con ducted un der the eco-edaphic con di tions pre vail ing at Hor ti cul ture Gar den of Chandra Shekhar Azad Uni ver sity of Ag ri cul ture and Tech nol ogy Kanpur (U.P.), In dia dur ing the year 1998-99 and 1999-2000. Uni form and healthy bulbs of tuberose cv. ‘Dou ble’ hav ing 2.5-3.0 cm di am e ter were pro cured from N.B.R.I. Lucknow. The re quired doses of ni tro gen 50,100 and 150kg/ha and phos pho rus 100, 200 and 300kg/ha as treat ments were ap plied. K 2 O@200 kg/ha and F.Y.M.@40 tonnes/ha were also ap plied as per reccommenda- tion. The sources of ni tro gen were Urea, am mo nium sul phate and cal cium am mo nium ni trate. Phos pho rus and pot ash were ap plied with the help of super phos phate and muriate of pot ash, re spec tively. Full dose of phos pho rus and pot ash with half dose of ni tro gen were ap plied as basal dress ing, re main ing half dose of N was ap plied as Received : 28.12.2012 Accepted : 27.1.2013 HortFlora Research Spectrum, 2(1): 40-44 (Jan.-March 2013) ISSN : 2250-2823 split doses at 60 and 90 days af ter bulb plant ing. All the rec om mended cul tural and plant pro tec tion mea sures were ap plied. The ex per i ments were laid out un der Fac to rial Ran dom ized Block De sign in the both con sec u tive years of ex per i men ta tion with three rep li ca tions. Thus 120 plots (1.0 ´ 1.0 m size) were used for 40 treat ment com bi na tions. Data of ex per i ments were an a lyzed as per Panse and Sukhatme (6). Days to emer gence of spike were com puted from the plant ing date of bulbs till first scape tip was vis i ble. The length of spike was mea sured from the lower ex posed por tion up to apex of last flo ret with the help of me ter scale. Di am e ter of spike was mea sured from 5cm above the ground level with the help of ver nier cal i pers and length of rachis was mea sured from the first basipetal flo ret to apex of last flo ret with the help of me ter scale. The num ber of flow ers per spike was counted at dif fer ent pick ing un der each treat ment. For fresh flower weight tagged spikes were picked and mixed gently treat ment wise for ob tain ing ho mo ge neous sam ples. Ran domly se lected ten fresh flow ers were weighted (g) on elec tronic bal ance un der each treat ment. The pe riod be tween open ing of first and last flo ret on spike was noted and mean value was treated as du ra tion of flow er ing. The du ra tion be tween plac ing of spike in vase and fad ing of last flo ret was noted as vase life of spike. For ob tain ing of spike yield and the num ber of spike was counted treat ment wise dur ing en tire ex per i men tal pe riod on tagged plant and per hect are val ues were cal cu lated. The yield per hect are (tonnes) was de rived with the help of yield per plot un der all the treat ments and the data ob tained were pro cessed sta tis ti cally dur ing both the years of study. RE SULTS AND DIS CUS SION 1. Ef fect on the days to emer gence of spike and size of spike Cal cium am mo nium ni trate in duced sig nif i cant ear lier flow er ing when com pared with other sources bar ring am mo nium sul phate dur ing first year (Table 1). Ear li est emer gence of spike un der CAN was reg is tered re quir ing 97.27 and 95.58 days against 98.35 and 97.91 days un der urea treat ment dur ing first and sec ond year of in ves ti ga tion. Ni tro gen in in creas ing doses de layed the spike emer gence sig nif i cantly. The high est dose of nitrogen sig nif i cantly de layed emer gence show ing 98.54 and 97.72 days against the ear li est un der con trol (96.22 and 94.44 days) dur ing cor re spond ing years of in ves ti ga tion. Phos pho rus in in creas ing dose caused ear lier emer gence of spike in tuberose. The high est dose i.e. 300 kg/ha re quired 96.27 and 95.15 days, fol lowed by 200 kg/ha treat ment (97.07 and 96.12 days). The plants un der P con trol de layed the pa ram e ter ex hib it ing 99.08 and 97.67 days, re spec tively. These find ings are in agree ment with the re ports of Sadhu and Bose (9) in tuberose and Niengboi and Singh (5) in glad i o lus. The size (length and di am e ter) of tuberose spikes was im proved when the plants were fer til ized with am mo nium sul phate fol lowed by cal cium am mo nium ni trate. It was re corded 78.19 and 80.99 cm long un der am mo nium sul phate treat ment as com pared to urea. Sim i larly, di am e ter of spike in creased to the max i mum (0.88 and 0.90 cm) un der am mo nium sul phate treat ment. The trend of vari a tion in di am e ter of tuberose spikes was sim i lar to its length dur ing both the years. In creas ing lev els of ni tro gen caused sig nif i cant in crease in the length of spike. 150 kg N/ha pro duced 78.16 cm and 81.14 cm long spikes in respective years fol lowed by 100 kgN/ha treat ment. Sim i larly, 150 kg/ha ni tro gen proved most ef fec tive in in duc ing 0.88 and 0.89 cm di am e ter dur ing first and sec ond year, re spec tively fol lowed by its 100 kg dose (0.85 and 0.87 cm di am e ter). Among the four lev els of phos pho rous nu tri tion, 200 kg/ha pro duced sig nif i cantly lon gest spikes when com pared with rest of doses ex press ing 77.21 and 80.28 cm val ues un der both the years (Table 1). Sim i larly, out of four lev els of phos pho rus, 200 kg/ha in duced sig nif i cantly max i mum di am e ter (0.87 and 0.88 cm) re main ing at par with 300 kg/ha dose dur ing both the years. Influence of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers with nitrogen sources on floral parameters of tuberose 41 42 Gangwar et al. The pres ent finding is in ac cor dance with the re ports of Mukhhopadhyay et al. (4) but con tra dic tory to re sults of Preeti Hatibarua et.al. (7), Kumar and Mishra (3) and Bhattacharjee (2) in glad i o lus. 2. Ef fect on the length of rachis and number of florets per spike Am mo nium sul phate pro duced sig nif i cantly lon gest (26.78 and 28.00 cm) rachis than the rest of sources stud ied dur ing both the years fol lowed by CAN (26.34 and 27.17 cm) fer til iza tion. Lon gest rachis mea sur ing 26.74 and 27.85 cm were reg is tered when 150 kg N was ap plied fol lowed by 100 kg dose (26.46 and 27.17 cm) dur ing both the years. N 2 and N 3 (100 kg and 150 kg N/ha), how ever, when com pared be tween them selves showed non-sig nif i cant vari a tion un der both the tri als. In creas ing lev els of P in creased the length of rachis con sis tently dur ing both the years bar ring P 3 (300 kg/ha) dur ing sec ond year of study. The lon gest rachis were reg is tered, 26.26 and 27.59 cm, un der P 3 and P 2 (300 kg and 200 kg P/ha) dur ing both the years of study. Results are in consonance with Singh (10). Ap pli ca tions of am mo nium sul phate pro duced max i mum (39.97 and 40.91) florets per spike dur ing both the years fol lowed by CAN (39.69 and 40.83). Urea showed min i mum num ber of flo rets (37.55 and 38.33) per spike dur ing both the years of study. Max i mum num ber of florets 40.80 and 40.20 revealed un der 150 kg N/ha fol lowed by 100 kg N (39.26 and 40.65) dur ing both the years of in ves ti ga tion. Phos pho rus nu tri tion in flu enced the pro duc tion of flo rets/spike dur ing both the years of trial. It was how ever, sig nif i cantly max i mized un der 200kg P 2 O 5 ha level when com pared with rest of doses bar ring sec ond year of trial, where it was ob served to be akin with 300 kg dose. P 2 (200 kg P 2 O 5 /ha) pro duced the max i mum (39.87 and 40.63) florets per spike fol lowed by 300 kg/ha (P 3 ) dose re vealing 38.97 and 40.03 florets per spike dur ing both the year of trial, re spec tively. 3. Ef fect on the weight of fresh flow ers(g) and duration of flowering (days) Among three sources of ni trog e nous fer til iz ers, am mo nium sul phate (33.36 and 33.86 g) proved su pe rior over CAN and urea re vealed 33.26, 33.63g and 32.04, 33.29g fresh flower weight, re spec tively dur ing both the year of study. Am mo nium sul phate, how ever, re mained sta tis ti cally at par with CAN dur ing both the years. Ni tro gen in in creas ing doses re corded greater test weight of fresh flower dur ing both the years. 150 kg N/ha (N 3 ) re veal ing 33.55 and 34.15g val ues were found sta tis ti cally akin to N 2 (100 kg N/ha) exhibiting 33.15, 33.67g fresh weight in both years, respectively. Ap pli ca tion of 200kg P/ha had in creased the test weight of fresh flow ers to the max i mum (32.99g) dur ing first year but in sec ond year it was noted greater un der 100 kg /ha (33.49 g fresh weight). Cal cium am mo nium ni trate (CAN) proved more ef fec tive ex hib it ing 21.06 and 22.40 days flowering span of spikes fol lowed by am mo nium sul phate (20.17 and 21.76 days) dur ing both the years of study. How ever, 150 kg/ha dose be ing su pe rior than the rest of lev els ex pressed max i mum 21.41 and 22.39 days blooming, re spec tively. The max i mum of 20.89 and 22.33 days shelf life of tuberose spikes were shown dur ing both the years were ob tained with 200 kg/ha. How ever, 200 kg and 300 kh P/ha re mained sta tis ti cally akin in this re gard. 4. Ef fect on the vase life and yield of tuberose The mean val ues ob vi ously in di cated that among three sources of ni trog e nous fer til iz ers, (Table 1) CAN re vealed the lon gest (9.59 and 9.52 days) vase life fol lowed by am mo nium sul phate (9.27 and 9.40 days) dur ing both the year of study. How ever in com par i son of CAN and am mo nium sul phate, the for mer was sig nif i cantly most ef fec tive. Ni tro gen ap plied in var ied lev els af fected the vase life sig nif i cantly. Its in creas ing lev els con sis tently showed lon ger keep ing qual ity up to 150 kg N dose dur ing both the year re cord ing 9.55 Influence of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers with nitrogen sources on floral parameters of tuberose 43 . e l b u o D . v c e s o r e b u t n i s r e t e m a r a p l a r o l f e h t n o s r e z i l i t r e f s u r o h p s o h p d n a s u o n e g o r t i n f o t c e f f E : 1 e l b a T s t n e m t a e r T o t s y a D f o e c n e g r e m e e k i p s f o h t g n e L ) m c ( e k i p s f o r e t e m a i D ) m c ( e k i p s f o h t g n e L ) m c ( s i h c a r f o r e b m u N r e p s t e r o l f e k i p s f o t h g i e W r e w o l f h s e r f ) g ( f o n o i t a r u D g n i r e w o l f ) s y a d ( f o e f i l e s a V ) s y a d ( e k i p s e k i p s f o d l e i Y ) a h / c a L ( f o d l e i Y r e w o l f ) a h / s e n n o t ( - 8 9 9 1 9 9 - 9 9 9 1 0 0 0 2 - 8 9 9 1 9 9 - 9 9 9 1 0 0 0 2 - 8 9 9 1 9 9 - 9 9 9 1 0 0 0 2 - 8 9 9 1 9 9 - 9 9 9 1 0 0 0 2 - 8 9 9 1 9 9 - 9 9 9 1 0 0 0 2 - 8 9 9 1 9 9 - 9 9 9 1 0 0 0 2 - 8 9 9 1 9 9 - 9 9 9 1 0 0 0 2 - 8 9 9 1 9 9 - 9 9 9 1 0 0 0 2 - 8 9 9 1 9 9 - 9 9 9 1 0 0 0 2 - 8 9 9 1 9 9 - 9 9 9 1 0 0 0 2 S ( a e r U 1 ) 5 3 . 8 9 1 9 . 7 9 6 7 . 4 7 8 4 . 8 7 1 8 . 0 2 8 . 0 3 3 . 5 2 5 3 . 6 2 5 5 . 7 3 3 3 . 8 3 4 0 . 2 3 9 2 . 3 3 3 1 . 0 2 8 3 . 1 2 1 4 . 8 7 6 . 8 1 8 . 3 2 9 . 3 9 1 . 8 1 3 8 . 9 1 t a h p l u S m u i n o m m A S ( 2 ) 0 4 . 7 9 0 4 . 6 9 9 1 . 8 7 9 9 . 0 8 8 8 . 0 0 9 . 0 8 7 . 6 2 0 0 . 8 2 7 9 . 9 3 1 9 . 0 4 6 3 . 3 3 7 8 . 3 3 7 1 . 0 2 6 7 . 1 2 7 2 . 9 0 4 . 9 3 2 . 4 3 4 . 4 3 9 . 9 1 6 9 . 1 2 m u i n o m m A m u i c l a C S ( e t a r t i N 3 ) 7 2 . 7 9 8 5 . 5 9 7 8 . 5 7 6 3 . 9 7 7 8 . 0 8 8 . 0 4 3 . 6 2 7 1 . 7 2 9 6 . 9 3 3 8 . 0 4 6 2 . 3 3 3 6 . 3 3 6 0 . 1 2 0 4 . 2 2 9 5 . 9 2 5 . 9 8 1 . 4 9 2 . 4 9 5 . 9 1 5 2 . 1 2 N ( a h / N g K 0 5 1 ) 0 8 . 6 9 6 6 . 5 9 4 3 . 4 7 1 7 . 7 7 3 8 . 0 4 8 . 0 3 2 . 5 2 0 5 . 6 2 5 1 . 7 3 2 2 . 8 3 6 9 . 1 3 7 9 . 2 3 5 1 . 9 1 9 1 . 1 2 9 4 . 8 4 6 . 8 1 6 . 3 7 8 . 3 9 2 . 7 1 6 0 . 9 1 N ( a h / N g K 0 0 1 2 ) 8 4 . 7 9 0 5 . 6 9 7 3 . 6 7 9 9 . 9 7 5 8 . 0 7 8 . 0 6 4 . 6 2 7 1 . 7 2 6 2 . 9 3 5 6 . 0 4 5 1 . 3 3 7 6 . 3 3 8 6 . 0 2 5 9 . 1 2 3 2 . 9 7 3 . 9 8 1 . 4 6 2 . 4 6 5 . 9 1 3 4 . 1 2 N ( a h / N g K 0 5 1 3 ) 4 5 . 8 9 2 7 . 7 9 6 1 . 8 7 4 1 . 1 8 8 8 . 0 9 8 . 0 4 7 . 6 2 5 8 . 7 2 0 8 . 0 4 0 2 . 1 4 5 5 . 3 3 5 1 . 4 3 1 4 . 1 2 9 3 . 2 2 5 5 . 9 8 5 . 9 3 4 . 4 1 5 . 4 6 8 . 0 2 5 5 . 2 2 ) 0 P ( a h / P g K 0 8 0 . 9 9 7 6 . 7 9 2 5 . 3 7 5 2 . 7 7 2 8 . 0 4 8 . 0 2 8 . 4 2 2 6 . 5 2 5 5 . 6 3 7 1 . 8 3 4 9 . 1 3 3 1 . 3 3 6 0 . 7 1 7 4 . 9 1 8 6 . 8 8 8 . 8 6 6 . 3 6 7 . 3 5 4 . 6 1 8 1 . 8 1 P ( a h / P g K 0 0 1 1 ) 9 6 . 7 9 1 7 . 6 9 6 5 . 5 7 4 0 . 9 7 4 8 . 0 6 8 . 0 7 7 . 5 2 2 8 . 6 2 9 5 . 8 3 7 6 . 9 3 7 6 . 2 3 9 4 . 3 3 3 9 . 9 1 4 4 . 1 2 7 9 . 8 3 0 . 9 2 0 . 4 2 1 . 4 2 1 . 8 1 0 3 . 0 2 P ( a h / P g K 0 0 2 2 ) 7 0 . 7 9 2 1 . 6 9 1 2 . 7 7 8 2 . 0 8 . 7 8 . 0 8 8 . 0 0 2 . 6 2 9 5 . 7 2 7 8 . 9 3 3 6 . 0 4 9 9 . 2 3 8 4 . 3 3 9 8 . 0 2 3 3 . 2 2 0 1 . 9 0 2 . 9 0 2 . 4 4 3 . 4 2 9 . 0 2 4 3 . 2 2 P ( a h / P g K 0 0 3 3 ) 7 2 . 6 9 5 1 . 5 9 3 3 . 6 7 1 3 . 9 7 6 8 . 0 7 8 . 0 6 2 . 6 2 8 3 . 7 2 7 9 . 8 3 3 0 . 0 4 1 7 . 2 3 4 2 . 3 3 2 5 . 0 2 4 1 . 2 2 2 0 . 9 8 0 . 9 8 0 . 4 1 3 . 4 9 7 . 9 1 7 3 . 1 2 ) 5 0 . 0 = P ( D C S 9 6 . 0 2 5 . 0 5 2 . 1 3 0 . 1 1 0 . 0 1 0 . 0 9 6 . 0 8 6 . 0 0 5 . 0 8 6 . 0 6 4 . 0 9 4 . 0 3 4 . 0 6 6 . 0 1 3 . 0 5 3 . 0 2 3 . 0 3 3 . 0 6 8 . 0 8 9 . 0 N 9 6 . 0 2 5 . 0 5 2 . 1 3 0 . 1 1 0 . 0 1 0 . 0 9 6 . 0 8 6 . 0 0 5 . 0 8 6 . 0 6 4 . 0 9 4 . 0 3 4 . 0 6 6 . 0 1 3 . 0 5 3 . 0 2 3 . 0 3 3 . 0 6 8 . 0 0 9 . 0 P 0 8 . 0 0 6 . 0 5 4 . 1 8 1 . 1 1 0 . 0 2 0 . 0 0 8 . 0 8 7 . 0 8 5 . 0 8 7 . 0 3 5 . 0 S N 0 5 . 0 6 7 . 0 S N S N 7 3 . 0 8 3 . 0 0 0 . 1 3 1 . 1 44 Gangwar et al. and 9.58 days vase life. 150 kgN/ha when com pared with N 2 (100 kg/ha) proved sig nif i cantly su pe rior in pro long ing the vase life of tuberose spikes un der first year trial. Phos pho rus nu tri tion at 200 kg/ha re main ing par with 100 and 300 kg/ha showed the lon gest vas life (9.10 days) when com pared with its con trol dur ing first year of trial but in sec ond year vary ing doses of P failed to cause sig nif i cant dif fer ences in this pa ram e ter. Vary ing sources of ni trog e nous fer til iz ers brought about sig nif i cant dif fer ences in yield of tuberose spikes dur ing both the years of in ves ti ga tion. Fer til iza tion with am mo nium sul phate max i mized the pro duc tion (4.23 and 4.43 lac spikes/ha) fol lowed by CAN(4.18 and 4.29 lac spikes/ha). How ever, both of these fer til iz ers when com pared with each other re mained sta tis ti cally at par re veal ing greater yield as com pared to urea dur ing both the years of trials. 150kg N/ha pro duced yield of 4.43 and 4.51 lac spikes fol lowed by 100 kg N treat ment (4.18 and 4.26 lac).All the lev els of ni tro gen in creased pos i tively pro duc tion of spike in this re gard. Phos pho rus @ 200 kg/ha max i mized spikes pro duc tion i.e.4.20 and 4.34 lac spikes/ha fol lowed by its 300 kg dose (4.08, 4.31 lac spikes). In three sources of ni trog e nous fer til iz ers, am mo nium sul phate gave 19.93 and 21.96 tonnes/ha yield be ing sig nif i cantly higher than urea (18.19 and 19.83 tonnes) fer til iza tion but re main ing at par with CAN (19.59 and 21.25 tonnes) dur ing both the years.150 kg ni tro gen/ha proved sig nif i cantly su pe rior than the rest of dose as well as con trol yield ing 20.86 and 22.55 tonnes/ha flowers dur ing first and sec ond years of trial, re spec tively. In creas ing dose of P fer til iza tion up to 200 kg/ha brought about sig nif i cant in crease in the yield of flower when com pared with rest of doses bar ring 300 kg/ha dur ing sec ond year trial. The yield of spike and fresh flow ers/ha was ob tained max i mum when the plant were fer til ized with am mo nium sul phate. The im prove ment in these at trib utes brought about by am mo nium sul phate are ob vi ously due to in creased num ber of spikes/plant and flowers/spike which caused the sig nif i cant in crease in the yield/ha. The plants nour ished by am mo nium sul phate also availed the ben e fit of sul phur which aids in the syn the sis of oils and ap pears to be as so ci ated with chlo ro phyll syn the sis there fore it plays a vi tal role in the phys i ol ogy of bul bous plants. The find ings of the pres ent in ves ti ga tions are in agree ment with the re ports of Bhattacharjee (1), Mukhhopadhyay et al. (4) and Rob ber and Hecher (8) in tuberose and chrysanthemum. REF ER ENCES 1. Bhattacharjee, S.K. (1995). Re search ad vances in post har vest han dling of flow ers. Pros pects of Flori cul ture in In dia, pp. 223-243. 2. Bhattacharjee, S.K. (1981). In flu ence of ni tro gen, phos pho rus and po tas sium fer til iza tion on flow er ing and corm pro duc tion in glad i o lus. Singapur J. Pri mary In dus tries, 9(1):23-27. 3. Kumar, R. and Mishra, R.L. (2011). Stud ies on ni tro gen ap pli ca tion in com bi na tion with phos pho rus or po tas sium on glad i o lus Cv. Jester Gold. In dian J. Hor t ., 68 (4):535-539. 4. Mukhopadhyay, A.; Sujatha, K. and Singh, K.P. (1986). In flu ence of dif fer ent sources of ni tro gen on growth and flow er ing of tuberose Cv. ‘Sin gle’. South In dian Hort., 34(6): 435-436. 5. Niengboi, Haokip and Singh, U.C. (2005). Re sponse of ni tro gen and phos pho rus on growth and flow er ing pa ram e ters in glad i o lus. J. Or na . Hort. New Se ries; 8(4):314-315. 6. Panse, V.G. and Sukhatme, P.V. (1978). Sta tis ti cal Method for Ag ri cul tural Work ers. pp. 156-165. 7. Preeti, Hatibarua; R.L. Mishra and P. Hatibarua (1999). Ef fect of ni tro gen sources on veg e ta tive and flo ral char ac ters of glad i o lus Cv. Dhanvantari. J. Orna. Horti. New se ries 2(2):111-114. 8. Rober, R. and K.Hecker(1971).The in flu ence of vari able fer til izer ap pli ca tion on the growth of chry san the mum. Gar ten Bauwises, 436: 275-279. 9. Sadhu, M.K. and T.K. Bose (1973).Tuberose for most ar tis tic gar lands. Ind. Hort; 18(3):17-20. 10. Singh, K.P. (2000). Response of graded levels of nitrogen in tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa L.) c.v. ‘Single’. Advances in Plant Sci; 13(1):283-289. EF FECT OF LOW POLY-TUN NEL ON THE GROWTH, YIELD AND HAR VEST ING SPAN OF SWEET PEP PER Kulbir Singh*, Rajinder Singh, D. S. Khurana and Jaswinder Singh De part ment of Veg e ta ble Sci ence, Punjab Ag ri cul tural Uni ver sity, Ludhiana *E-mail:
[email protected] ABSTRACT: To study the impact of low plastic tunnel on the performance of bell pepper, an experiment was conducted from 2004-05 to 2006-07 at vegetable experimental area, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. The treatments consisted of transplanting of bell pepper during November under low plastic perforated tunnel, low plastic non perforated tunnel, without protection and February transplanting in open field. The results clearly indicated that early yield (68.7q/ha), total yield (278.2 q/ha), fruit number per plant (18.9), plant height (49.44 cm), fruit girth (33.17 cm) and harvesting span (93 days) were significantly more in low plastic non perforated tunnel as compared to unprotected and February transplanted crops. However average fruit weight was at par in all the treatments. Keywords: Sweet pep per, poly-tun nel, har vest ing span, Under Punjab conditions bell pepper is generally transplanted during February in open. By the time the crop comes to flowering and fruiting in April when the temperature already crosses 35°C. The threshold temperature for bell pepper to flower and fruiting is 32°C beyond which flowering and fruiting is badly affected. Further during the month of May the temperature crosses 40°C affecting flowering and fruiting severely. The Punjab has extreme low temperature in winter season touching 0°C and as high as 45°C in summer thereby limiting the harvesting span of the crop. This situation suggests to modify microclimate which will increase availability span of vegetables and farmers can capture the market early in the season to get good return of the produce. The low plastic tunnel technology is very useful in protecting the crop from frost during winter along with growth of the plants which enables the farmer to get early crop and for longer period. Further the low plastic tunnels can be easily dismantled and utilized in the next year. Therefore, the present investigation was conducted to standardize the low plastic technology for raising the sweet pepper during early summer. MA TE RI ALS AND METH ODS The pres ent ex per i ment was con ducted dur ing three years (2004-05 to 2006-07). The treat ments con sisted of per fo rated plas tic tun nel (T 1 ), Non-per fo rated plas tic tun nel (T 2 ), Un pro tected trans plant ing (T 3 ) and open field (T 4 ). In treat ment T 1 plants were pro tected with the help of plas tic sheet but small holes were made with the help of nee dle in the plas tic sheet. In treat ment T 2 plants were com pletely pro tected with the help of plas tic sheet with out any hole whereas no pro tec tion was pro vided in treat ment T 3 and in T 4 . Nurs ery of sweet pep per was sown in mid Oc to ber un der net tun nel to avoid the at tack of white fly and trans planted in third week of No vem ber in treat ment T 1 , T 2 , and T 3 . Nurs ery of T 4 treat ment was sown in first week of No vem ber and trans planted in first week of Feb ru ary when the risk of frost is over. The poly thene sheets for treat ments T 1 and T 2 were re moved as soon as the risk of frost is over. The trans plant ing was done on the both sides of raised beds main tain ing the dis tance of 120 cm and 30 cm be tween rows and plants re spec tively. All the cul tural prac tices were done as per pack age of prac tices for open cul ti va tion. Data was re corded on plant height (cm), days taken to first har vest, early yield (q/hac), av er age fruit weight (g), fruit girth (cm), num ber of fruits per plant, har vest ing span and to tal yield (q/ha). RE SULTS AND DIS CUS SION The anal y sis of pooled data for three years Received : 10.12.2012 Accepted : 2.1.2013 HortFlora Research Spectrum, 2(1): 45-49 (Jan.-March 2013) ISSN : 2250-2823 46 Singh et al. (Table 1) re vealed that plant height and plant spread un der pro tec tion were con sid er ably higher than un pro tected crop. In crease in height and plant spread were due to higher tem per a ture in side the tun nel (Fig 1). Kacjan and Osvald (3) also ob served taller plants un der low plas tic tun nels. Days taken to first har vest were more in case of crop trans planted dur ing No vem ber with out pro tec tion i.e. T 3 (129.50) while Feb ru ary trans planted crop (T 4 ) was ready for first pick ing in 78.50 days. On the other hand the early yield re corded was 68.7 q/ha un der low tun nel which was sig nif i cantly higher than un pro tected crop (24q/ha) and the Feb ru ary trans planted crop pro duced no early yield. This might be due to the fact that crop grown un der low tun nel es caped from the frost in jury in De cem ber and Jan u ary and there was Table 1: Ef fect of dif fer ent treat ments on growth con trib ut ing at trib utes in bell pep per. Treatment Plant height (cm) Plant spread Leaf area (cm 2 ) 2004- 05 2005 -06 2006 -07 Mean 2004 -05 2005- 06 2006- 07 Mean 2004- 05 2005- 06 2006- 07 Mean T 1 Perforated plastic tunnel 49.5 48.1 49.1 48.9 55.1 49.0 52.0 52.1 1266.1 1284.0 1283..9 1278.0 T 2 Non perforated plastic tunnel 48.7 47.4 48.2 48.2 54.4 48.9 51.7 51.7 1279.5 1278.6 1279.3 1279.1 T 3 Unprotected 34.2 33.5 34.2 34.0 45.9 42.5 43.6 44.0 1227.4 1221.7 1223.2 1224.1 T 4 February transplanting 35.2 34.1 35.0 34.8 45.4 41.8 43.9 43.7 1229.4 1224.3 1224.4 1226.0 C.D. (P=0.05) 4.0 3.9 4.1 4.1 4.9 4.8 5.0 5.0 NS. NS. NS. NS Ta ble 2: Ef fect of dif fer ent treat ments on yield and yield con trib ut ing at trib utes in bell pep per. Treatment Fruit number per plant Average fruit weight (g) Early yield (q/ha) Total yield (q/ha) 200 4-05 200 5-06 200 6-07 Mea n 200 4-05 200 5-06 200 6-07 Mea n 200 4-05 200 5-06 200 6-07 Mea n 200 4-05 200 5-06 200 6-07 Mea n T 1 Perforated plastic tunnel 19.0 13.5 18.2 16.9 35.0 34.6 38.7 36.1 59.4 39.1 57.4 52.0 269. 9 169. 5 220. 3 219. 9 T 2 Non perforated plastic tunnel 18.8 13.7 18.8 17.1 35.3 34.0 40.3 36.5 66.0 38.6 51.0 51.9 268. 7 166. 6 235. 3 223. 5 T 3 Unprotected 12.6 9.8 11.3 11.2 35.2 33.5 35.7 34.8 20.0 11.3 20.4 17.2 190. 5 103. 6 163. 6 152. 6 T 4 February transplanting 8.4 7.9 9.0 8.4 33.8 32.0 32.5 32.8 - - - 165. 2 101. 2 143. 5 136. 6 C.D. (P=0.05) 1.8 2.1 1.0 1.9 NS NS NS NS. 7.0 5.5 7.5 6.9 33.2 15.1 11.0 21.5 Table 3: Effect of different treatments on harvesting in bell pepper. Treatment Days taken to first harvest Harvesting span 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 Mean 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 Mean T 1 Perforated plastic tunnel 105.7 105.0 120.3 110.3 92.0 95.3 96.0 94.4 T 2 Non perforated plastic tunnel 103.7 103.3 120.3 109.1 92.7 93.3 84.7 90.2 T 3 Unprotected 128.0 120.0 138.0 128.7 61.7 64 63.7 63.1 T 4 February transplanting 79.0 78.7 89.3 82.3 51.7 53.7 42.3 49.2 C.D. (P=0.05) 7.5 8.4 10.3 4.5 4.9 4.6 5.3 2.5 Effect of low poly-tunnel on the growth, yield and harvesting span of sweet pepper 47 Effect of low tunnel on maximum and minimum tempeature during December 04- January 05 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 We e kly inte rv al T e m p e r t u r e ° C T1(max-Open) T2(ma x Tu nn e l ) T3(Min -Tun n el)T T4(Min Op en ) (a) Effect of low tunnel on maximum and minimum temperature during December 05 - January,06 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Weekly interval T e m p e r a t u r e ° C T1(max-Open) T2(max Tunnel ) T3(Mi n-Tunnel )T T4(Mi n Open) (b) Effect of low tunnel on maximum and minimum temperature during December 06 - January07 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Weekly interval T e m p e r a t u r e ° C T1(max-Open) T2(max Tunnel ) T3(Min-Tunnel )T T4(Min Open) (c) Fig. 1: Effect of low tunnel on maximum and minium temperature (at weekly interval) (a) 2004-05, (b) 2005-06, (c) 2006-07. 48 Singh et al. continous growth of the plants due to high tem per a ture in the tun nel (Fig 1). The growth of the un pro tected plants was severly af fected by the frost dam age and when these plants re gained their veg e ta tive growth dur ing the month of Feb ru ary the plants un der low tun nel started flow er ing. Pakyurek et al. (6) re ported 39% in crease in ear li ness in cap si cum un der pro tected con di tions over con trol. Sim i larly, Sari et al. (7) re vealed 51% in crease in early yield un der low tun nel in cu cum ber. They also found that av er age air and soil tem per a ture were high est un der low tun nel. Immirzi et al. (4) re ported that pep per grown un der plas tic tun nel were 20 days in ad vance. Cheema et al. (2) also re ported that to mato plants un der pro tected con di tions were ear lier than nor mal grown con di tions. The pres ent in ves ti ga tion also re vealed that to tal yield was sig nif i cantly higher than un pro tected and al most dou ble than the Feb ru ary trans planted crop (Table 2). This is mainely due to in crease in har vest ing span of the crop. Fur ther the bell pep per got the max i mum fa vour able time for its growth, flow er ing and fruit ing than the Feb ru ary trans planted crop. The crop grown with out pro tec tion got some chill ing in jury due to frost and took some time to re cover. Buczkowska et al. (1) re vealed that to tal yield un der low tun nel was higher than un der open con di tions. Sari et al. (7) re ported that in crease in yield un der low tun nel was due to in crease in har vest ing span in cu cum ber. Fruit num ber per plant was re corded more un der pro tected con di tions and it was sig nif i cantly higher than un pro tected as well as Feb ru ary trans planted crop. It was also seen that un pro tected bell pep per had also more fruit num ber than Feb ru ary trans planted crop. This is due to the fact that bell pep per grown un der plas tic tun nel got fa vour able con di tions for max i mum growth, flow er ing and fruit ing in com par i son to other treat ments re sult ing in more num ber of fruits per plant. Kacjan and Osvald (3) ob tained more fruits per plant un der plas tic tun nel in pep per. They at trib uted it to the in crease in tem per a ture in tun nel dur ing the frost pe riod which re sults in more growth and yield of the crop. The av er age fruit weight un der low tun nel was non sig nif i cantly higher than other teartments. It was also ob served that av er age fruit weight in first two pick ing was sig nif i cantly higher in low tun nel than the un pro tected and Feb ru ary trans planted crop. Fruit girth was more un der pro tected con di tions (33.17cm) than the un pro tected (27.94) and Feb ru ary trans planted crop (28.15cm). Data pre sented in the Ta ble 3 clearly in di cated that har vest ing span of crop un der low tun nel (93 days) was sig nif i cantly more than the pro tected as well as Feb ru ary trans planted crop. This is due to fa vour able en vi ron ment of growth un der low tun nel than other treat ments. Macua et al. (5) re ported in to mato that by use of plas tic cov ers the crop get early and pro long for lon ger du ra tion than the nor mal grown crop. The re sults ob tained dur ing the two year study clearly in di cated that the tech nol ogy will help the grow ers to raise the bell pep per in early sum mer and in crease the har vest ing span of the crop fetch ing higher price. REF ER ENCES 1. Buczkowska, H., Babik, I. and Rumpel, J. (1994). Use ful ness of a slid able tun nel in ac cel er ated veg e ta ble grow ing. Sev enth In ter na tional sym po sium on tim ing field pro duc tion of veg e ta bles, Skierniewice, Po land, 23-27 Au gust 1993. Acta Hort., 371: 297-304. 2. Cheema, D.S.; Kaur, P. and Kaur, S. (2004). Offseason cul ti va tion un der net house con di tions. Acta Hort., 659 : 177-81. 3. Kacjan Marsin, N. and Osvald, J. (1997). The in flu ence of dif fer ent cover ma te ri als of green houses on growth and de vel op ment of pep per (Cap si cum annuum L.). Zbornic- Biotehniske-Fakultete-Univerze-v-Ljubljani,- Kmetijstvo, 69: 141-46. 4. Immirzi, B; Malinconico, M; Casale, E., Mormile, P., Shenker, Y. and Ben-Yehoshua, S. (1998). Testing of innovative co-extruded films in anticipated cultures in South Italy. 14th International Congress on Plastics in Agriculture, Tel Aviv, Israel, March 1997-1998, pp. 177-80. 5. Macua, H; Santos, A. and Zuniga, J. (1999). The ef fect of the plant ing date on the programmation of yield and qual ity of pro cess ing to mato in Navar re (Spain). Acta Hort., 487: 229-32. 6. Pakyurek, A.Y., Abak, K., Sari, N., Guler, H. Y., Cockshull, K.E., Tuzel, Y. and Gul, A. (1994). In flu ence of mulch ing on ear li ness and yield of some veg e ta bles grown un der high tun nels. Sec ond sym po sium on pro tected cul ti va tion of solanacea in mild win ter cli mates, Adana, Tur key, 13-16 April 1993. Acta Hort., 366: 155-160. 7. Sari, N., Guler, H.Y., Abak, K., Pakyurek, Y., Babik, I. and Rumpel, J. (1994). Ef fect of mulch and tunnel on the yield and harvesting period of cucumber and squash. Seventh International symposium on timing field production of vegetables, Skierniewice, Poland, 23-27 August 1993. Acta Hort., 371: 305-310. Effect of low poly-tunnel on the growth, yield and harvesting span of sweet pepper 49 PER FOR MANCE OF CU CUM BER (Cucumis sativus L.) HY BRIDS IN AGRO-CLI MA TIC CON DI TIONS OF ALLAHABAD Jitendra Kumar Patel*, Vijay Ba ha dur, Devi Singh, V. M. Prasad and S. B. Rangare De part ment of Hor ti cul ture, Allahabad School of Ag ri cul ture, Sam Higginbottom In sti tute of Ag ri cul ture, Tech nol ogy and Sci ences, Allahabad (U.P.) *E-mail:
[email protected] AB STRACT: Twenty cu cum ber hy brids were eval u ated for growth, yield and fruit qual ity traits in Allahabad agroclimic conditions. The study re vealed that the hy brid Garima Super re corded high est vine length (249.17 cm), num ber of branches per vine (11.42), num ber of male flow ers (206.33) and fe male flow ers (29.17) per vine, num ber of fruits per vine (13.83), fruit weight (168.33 g), fruit length (168.33 cm), fruit di am e ter (4.03 cm), fruit yield (2.24 kg/ vine and 36.24 t ha -1 ), TSS (5.50 °Brix), vi ta min C con tent (7.28 mg/100 g) and organoleptic scores for var i ous fruit qual ity traits while, the low est days to ap pear ance first male flower (31.92) and fe male flower (35.83), node num ber at which first male flower (3.42) and fe male flower (4.83) ap peared and days to first fruit har vest (44.83) were ob served in same hy brid. Hy brid Garima Super was found su pe rior based on the over all per for mance of dif fer ent cu cum ber hy brids for growth, yield, qual ity char ac ters and eco nomic re turns for cul ti va tion of cu cum ber un der Allahabad con di tions. Keywords: Cu cum ber, hybirds, TSS, vi ta min ‘C’, organoleptic test. Cu cum ber bo tani cally known as Cucumis sativus L. is one of the most im por tant crop of Cucurbitaceae. It is na tive of In dia. Cu cum ber is con sid ered as fourth most im por tant veg e ta ble crop af ter to mato, cab bage and on ion. Of the var i ous veg e ta bles grown in In dia, cu cum ber has high place in the diet as a rich source of car bo hy drates, as a break fast fruit and as in gre di ent of sal ads. Cu cum ber (Cucumis sativus L.) is one of the old est amongst the cul ti vated veg e ta ble crops and has been found in cul ti va tion since 3000 to 4000 years. Bio chem i cally the cu cur bits are char ac ter ized by bit ter prin ci ples, called cu cur bi ta cins i.e. tetracyclic triterpenes (Jeffery, 4). Ma jor ity of the cu cur bits are ei ther monoecious or andromonoecious (a few dioecious) with trail ing habit and are pol li nated by in sects. It is one of quick est ma tur ing vine veg e ta bles crops. It is a warm sea son crop and grown mostly dur ing kharif and sum mer sea sons in all the parts of the coun try in clud ing hilly parts of North In dia. The in ves ti ga tion was taken with the ob jec tives to find out the most suit able hy brid in terms of growth, yield and qual ity of cu cum ber for com mer cial cul ti va tion in rainy sea son un der Allahabad con di tion. MA TE RI ALS AND METH ODS The pres ent in ves ti ga tion was car ried out at veg e ta ble re search farm, De part ment of Hor ti cul ture, Allahabad School of Ag ri cul ture, Sam Higginbottom In sti tute of Ag ri cul ture, Tech nol ogy and Sci ences, Allahabad (U.P.) in the year 2011 dur ing rainy sea son. There were twenty cu cum ber hy brids viz., Joolie, F 1 Fumiko-10, R. K.-180, J. K. Manali, Dash, Khiaudon, Manvi Plus, Alisha, Noori, LG-40, Hy brid Mala, Agro Priya, Prasad-100, Hy brid -512, Sheetal, Taksin, Kanene, NCH-2, US-249 and Garima Super, which were sown for rais ing rainy sea son cu cum ber crop. All the hy brids were sown on 18 th July, 2011 by the raised bed method with spac ing of 1.0 m and 1.5 m plant to plant and row to row, re spec tively. Adopt ing the rec om mended cul ti va tion prac tices for rais ing a healthy crop and used the trel lis sys tem for vines climb ing. The experiment was laid out in ran dom ized block de sign with three rep li ca tions. Ob ser va tions on var i ous char ac ters namely, vine length (cm), num ber of branches, days to first ap pear ance of male and fe male flower, node num ber at which first male and fe male flower ap pears, num ber of male and fe male flow ers, num ber of fruits per vine, fruit di am e ter (cm), fruit Received : 24.12.2012 Accepted : 32.1.2013 HortFlora Research Spectrum, 2(1): 50-55 (Jan.-March 2013) ISSN : 2250-2823 length (cm), fruit weight (g), days to first fruit har vest, fruit yield (kg/ plant), fruit yield tonnes per hect are, T. S. S. (°Brix), vi ta min ‘C’ mg / 100g and sen sory eval u a tion of cu cum ber by organoleptic prop er ties were re corded from five ran domly se lected plants of each hy brid. Data was sta tis ti cally an a lyzed for the eval u a tion of hy brids. RE SULTS AND DIS CUS SION The maximum vine length was found with Garima Super (249.17cm) followed by LG-40 (237.92cm), US-24 (222.92cm) and minimum vine length was recorded with Agro Priya (183.75cm) (Table 1). The variation in vine length might have been due to specific genetic makeup of different hybrids, inherent properties, environment factor, hormonal factor and vigour of the crop. Similar results have been reported by Solanki and Seth (9) in cucumber. Maximum number of branches per vine was recorded in Garima Super (11.42) followed by Alisha (10.67) and US-249 (10.50) while, the lowest number of branches per vine was recorded in Hybrid-512 (7.33). The variation in number of branches per vine might have been due to its own genetic makeup and also due to vine length, internodal length, hormonal factor and environmental factor confirming to reports of Sharma and Bhattarai (8) in cucumber. Minimum days to first appearance of male flower were observed in Garima Super (31.92 days) followed by Joolie (32.00 days) and US-249 (32.25 days). Maximum days to first appearance of male flower were found in J.K. Manali (38.83 days). The days of first appearance of male flower plays an important role in deciding the earliness or lateness of crop in general. Minimum days to first appearances of female flower were observed with Garima Super (35.83 days) followed by LG-40 (36.42) and US-249 (36.83 days). Maximum days were recorded to first appearance of female flower with Dash (39.83days). The number of days from sowing to first appearance of female flower is an important character that indicates earliness or lateness of the crop in general. The variation in first appearance of male and female flower might have been due to internodal length, number of internodes, genetic nature, environmental factor and vigour of the crop. Similar results have been reported by Sahni et al. (7) in ridge gourd, Badgurjar and More (2) and Bairagi et al. (3) in cucumber. Minimum node number at which first male flower appeared were observed in Garima Super (3.42 node) followed by Manvi Plus (4.00 node) and US-249 (4.08 node). Maximum node number at which first male flower appeared was in R.K.-180 (6.25nodes). Minimum node number at which first female flower appeared was recorded in Garima Super (4.83 node) followed by Alisha (4.92node) and US-249 (5.25 node). Maximum node number at which first female flower appeared was in Joolie (7.42 node). The variation in node number at which first male and female flower appears might have been due to specific genetic makeup of different hybrids and prevailing environmental conditions. Similar results have been reported by Bairagi et al. (3) and Sharma and Bhattarai (8) in cucumber. Maximum number of male flowers per vine was recorded in Garima Super (206.33) followed by Hybrid-512 (194.5) and US-249 (163.42). The minimum number of male flowers per vine was found in hybrid Mala (103.83). Maximum number of female flowers per vine was found with Garima Super (29.17) followed by LG-40 (25.58) and US-249 (23.67). The minimum number of female flowers per vine was recorded in Hybrid-512 (13.83). The variation in number of male and female flowers per vine might have been due to their genetic makeup, environmental factor, hormonal factor and vigour of the crop. Similar results have been reported by Solanki and Seth (9), Rastogi et al. (6) and Bairagi et al. (3) in cucumber. Data pre sented in Ta ble 2 revealed that the max i mum num ber of fruits per vine was re corded in Garima Super (13.83) fol lowed by LG-40 (12.42) and US-249 (11.17). The low est num ber of fruits per vine was re corded in Hy brid-512 (8.33). The num ber of fruits per vine is one of the ma jor fac tors for de cid ing the yield of the crop. The vari a tion in num ber of fruits per vine might have been due to Performance of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) hybrids in agroclimatic conditions of Allahabad 51 52 Patel et al. sex ra tio, fruit set per cent age, ge netic na ture and their re sponse to vary ing en vi ron men tal con di tions. Vari a tion in num ber of fruits per vine was also re ported by Nag et al. (5) in invy gourd and Srivastava and Srivastava (10) in bit ter gourd. Max i mum fruit di am e ter was re corded in Garima Super (4.03cm) fol lowed by Joolie (3.99 cm) and US-249 (3.98 cm). The min i mum fruit di am e ter was found in Hy brid-512 (3.49 cm). In creas ing in fruit yield is mostly in flu enced by fruit di am e ter. The fruit di am e ter will be high then au to mat i cally fruit yield will be also high. Sig nif i cantly max i mum fruit length was re corded in Garima Super (19.58 cm) fol lowed by LG-40 (18.75 cm) and US-249 (18.17 cm). The min i mum fruit length was re corded with J. K. Manali (12.75 cm). The vari a tion in fruit length and di am e ter might have been due to ge netic na ture, en vi ron men tal fac tor and vig our of the crop Ahamed et al. (1) and Rastogi et al. (6) have also re ported sim i lar find ings in cu cum ber. Garima Super (168.33g) showed sig nif i cantly max i mum fruit weight fol lowed by LG-40 (167.33g) and US-249 (166.17g) and the low est fruit weight was found in Hy brid-512 (141.25g). The higher fruit di am e ter and higher fruit length re sult in to higher fruit weight. The high est fruit weight in Garima Super may be due to its hy brid vig our and adoptability to Allahabad agro-cli ma tic con di tions confirming to findings of Prasad (5) in bot tle gourd. Min i mum days to first fruit har vest from sow ing was found with Garima Super (44.83 days) fol lowed by Alisha (46.67 days) and US-249 (46.92). Hy brid Joolie (50.25 days) had taken very much time to first har vest ing. The vari a tion in days to first fruit to har vest ing might have been due to ge netic fac tor, en vi ron men tal fac tor, hor monal fac tor and vig our of the crop. Sig nif i cantly max i mum yield per vine (Table 2) was re corded in Ta ble 1: Mean per for mance of dif fer ent hy brids of cu cum ber (Cucumis sativus L.) in growth yield and qual ity. Hybrids Vine length (cm) Number of branches per vine Days to first appearance of male flower Days to first appearance of female flower Node number at which first male flower appears Node number at which first female flower appears Number of male flowers per vine Number of female flowers per vine Joolie 212.33 7.42 32.00 39.00 5.00 7.42 125.75 19.50 F 1 Fumiko-10 207.08 9.25 34.33 39.42 5.75 6.33 123.50 14.92 R.K-180 198.75 9.83 33.25 36.92 6.25 5.67 146.92 17.17 J.K. Manali 195.83 8.42 38.83 38.83 5.00 5.50 125.00 21.67 Dash 201.25 9.33 34.42 39.83 4.50 5.58 123.08 22.00 Khioudon 212.10 8.67 32.75 38.33 4.83 5.83 130.42 22.92 Manvi Plus 193.75 8.00 34.17 38.92 4.00 6.33 121.58 14.67 Alisha 215.42 10.67 32.67 37.17 4.17 4.92 157.17 23.65 Noori 195.00 8.92 35.08 38.42 4.75 7.33 143.67 20.42 LG- 40 237.92 10.00 34.17 36.42 4.75 5.33 128.92 25.58 Hybrid Mala 202.08 9.92 34.83 38.75 4.67 5.42 103.83 17.00 Agro Priya 183.75 9.08 36.08 39.19 5.50 7.17 112.42 21.83 Prasad-100 199.58 9.17 34.92 38.88 4.75 6.50 127.83 22.25 Hybrid- 512 212.08 7.33 37.00 39.25 5.92 6.33 194.50 13.83 Sheetal 201.67 7.83 35.17 38.83 6.08 6.25 138.17 18.67 Taksin 188.23 9.50 36.00 39.17 5.58 6.25 129.50 21.83 Kanene 193.75 7.92 34.25 37.00 5.08 5.58 134.67 21.08 NCH-2 205.00 8.67 32.83 38.75 5.00 5.42 125.50 22.67 US-249 222.92 10.50 32.25 36.83 4.08 5.25 163.42 23.67 Garima Super 249.17 11.42 31.92 35.83 3.42 4.83 206.33 29.17 C.D. (P=0.05) 3.96 0.30 0.33 0.33 0.33 0.28 1.48 0.48 Garima Super (2.24 kg) fol lowed by LG-40 (1.99 kg) and US-249 (1.8 kg). The low est fruit yield per vine was found in Hy brid-512 (1.31kg). The vari a tion in fruit yield per vine (kg) might have been due to fruit set per cent age, fruit length, num ber of fruits per vine, fruit weight, fruit width, ge netic na ture, en vi ron men tal fac tor and vig our of the crop. These find ings are in close con for mity with find ings of Sharma and Bhattarai (8) in cu cum ber and Srivastava and Srivastava (10) in bitter gourd. Garima Super re corded max i mum yield (36.24 t ha -1 ) fol lowed by LG-40 (31.72 t ha -1 ) and US-249 (28.7 t ha -1 ). The low est yield was found in Hy brid-512 (20.417 t ha -1 ). The sig nif i cant vari a tion in fruit yield might have been due to num ber of fruits per vine and yield per vine. Sim i lar re sults have also been re ported by Rastogi et al. (6) and Yadav et al (11) in cu cum ber, Sahni et al. (7) in ridgegourd. Significantly maximum T.S.S. was found with Garima Super (5.50°Brix) followed by Prasad-10 (5.36°Brix) and US-249 (5.33°Brix). The minimum TSS value was found with Noori (4.08°Brix). The higher TSS value in Garima Super may be due to its inherent characteristics. Maximum vitamin ‘C’ was found with Garima Super (7.28 mg) followed by LG-40 (7.23 mg) and US-249 (7.25 mg). The lowest vitamin 'C' mg/100g was found with Dash (6.25mg). Sen sory eval u a tion was done for over all per for mance of cu cum ber hy brids on the ba sis of their col our, aroma, tex ture, taste, fla vour and over all ac cept abil ity of cu cum ber fruits (Ta ble 3). Among 20 hy brids, Garima Super was found to be the best for col our on the ba sis of sen sory eval u a tion which se cured high est score (7.44) on 9.0 hedonic scale fol lowed by Joolie (7.33) and Performance of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) hybrids in agroclimatic conditions of Allahabad 53 Ta ble 2: Mean per for mance of dif fer ent hy brids of cu cum ber (Cucumis sativus L.) in growth yield and qual ity. Hybrids Number of fruits per vine Fruit diameter (cm) Fruit length (cm) Fruit weight (g) Days to first fruit harvest Fruit yield per vine (kg) Fruit yield (t ha -1 ) Total soluble solids (°Brix) Vit-C (mg / 100 g) Joolie 9.72 3.99 16.17 165.08 50.25 1.60 25.76 4.42 6.92 F1 Fumiko-10 9.33 3.72 15.67 155.00 49.25 1.47 23.13 4.75 6.92 R.K.-180 9.67 3.63 15.25 152.67 48.75 1.39 21.85 4.58 6.83 J.K. Manali 8.42 3.94 12.75 159.50 49.75 1.41 22.45 4.25 6.67 Dash 10.50 3.80 15.75 162.50 48.75 1.68 27.28 4.76 6.75 Khioudon 9.00 3.64 15.00 151.25 49.75 1.37 21.80 4.60 6.67 Manvi Plus 9.27 3.80 16.00 159.83 49.75 1.34 21.30 4.61 6.42 Alisha 11.00 3.96 18.00 165.25 46.67 1.71 27.84 5.25 7.08 Noori 9.75 3.61 16.58 150.75 49.75 1.48 23.50 4.08 6.92 LG.-40 12.42 3.94 18.75 167.33 47.17 1.99 31.72 5.08 7.23 Hybrid Mala 9.00 3.52 17.08 146.83 49.50 1.49 23.94 5.09 6.83 Agro Priya 9.25 3.61 13.75 151.00 49.50 1.41 22.35 5.00 6.92 Prasad-100 10.33 3.85 17.33 161.17 49.08 1.67 25.84 5.36 6.92 Hybrid-512 8.33 3.49 17.58 141.25 49.75 1.31 20.41 4.50 6.25 Sheetal 8.58 3.50 15.42 148.58 49.25 1.42 22.56 4.75 6.92 Taksin 9.42 3.66 16.00 153.67 49.50 1.44 23.15 4.93 6.83 Kanene 9.92 3.64 17.92 155.33 50.00 1.54 24.62 4.92 6.92 NCH-2 8.92 3.63 16.25 152.67 49.83 1.36 21.81 4.59 6.58 US-249 11.17 3.98 18.17 166.17 46.92 1.80 28.79 5.33 7.25 Garima Super 13.83 4.03 19.58 168.33 44.83 2.24 36.24 5.50 7.28 C.D. (P=0.05) 0.21 0.06 0.36 0.98 0.56 0.05 0.35 0.24 0.22 54 Patel et al. US-249 (7.17). While, the min i mum marks (6.00 each) was se cured by both Manvi Plus and NCH-2. How ever, in case of aroma, Garima Super ob tained high est (7.67) scores fol lowed by Joolie (7.17) and US-249 (7.11) whereas, the min i mum marks (5.67 each) were scored by Dash and Prasad-100 hy brids both. In case of tex ture, Garima Super ob tained the high est (7.67) scores fol lowed by Joolie (7.44), US-249 (7.33) and the min i mum scores (6.00 each) was taken by F 1 Fumiko-10, R.K.-180, Hy brid Mala, Prasad-100, Hy brid-512 and Kanene. The high est scores for taste was ob served in Garima Super (7.67) fol lowed by Joolie (7.75) and low est scores (5.67 each) in Khioudon, Manvi Plus and Kanene. In case of fla vour, Garima Super ob tained high est marks (7.67) fol lowed by Joolie (7.72) and US-249 (7.11) while, min i mum marks (5.67) was re corded in Agro Priya. In case of over all ac cept abil ity, Garima Super achieved high est scores (7.62) fol lowed by Joolie (7.73) and US-249 (7.21) whereas, min i mum scores (6.13) was obtained by Khioudon. Hybrid Garima Super recorded maximum gross return (289,955 Rs. ha -1 ) as well as net return (211, 090 Rs. ha -1 ). The highest cost benefit ratio (1: 3.68) was obtained in Garima Super followed by LG -40 (1: 3.18). REF ER ENCES 1. Ahmed, M., Hamid, A. and Zarqa, A. (2004). Growth and yield per for mance of six cu cum ber (Cucumis sativus L.) cultivars un der agro-cli ma tic con di tions of Rawalakot, Azad Jammu and Kash mir. In ter na tional J. Agric & Bio., 2: 396-399. 2. Badgujar, C.D. and More, T.A. (2004). Off sea son per for mance of se lected trop i cal Table 3: Organoleptic scores for fruits of different hybrids of Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.). Hybrids Colour Aroma Texture Taste Flavour Overall acceptability Joolie 7.33 7.17 7.44 7.75 7.22 7.33 F 1 Fumiko-10 6.67 6.67 6.00 6.00 6.33 6.33 R.K-180 7.00 6.67 6.00 6.33 6.00 6.40 J.K. Manali 6.67 6.67 6.33 6.33 6.67 6.53 Dash 6.33 5.67 6.33 6.67 6.00 6.20 Khioudon 6.33 6.33 6.33 5.67 6.00 6.13 Manvi Plus 6.00 6.67 6.67 5.67 6.33 6.27 Alisha 7.00 7.00 7.00 7.00 7.00 7.00 htNoori 6.00 6.33 6.33 6.67 6.33 6.33 L-40 6.67 6.67 6.67 6.00 6.67 6.53 Hybrid Mala 6.33 6.67 6.00 6.33 6.33 6.33 Agro Priya 6.33 6.44 6.33 6.67 5.67 6.29 Prasad-100 6.67 5.67 6.00 6.67 6.67 6.33 Hybrid-512 6.33 6.00 6.00 6.67 6.33 6.27 Sheetal 6.33 6.33 6.33 6.00 6.67 6.33 Taksin 6.33 6.33 6.00 6.33 6.00 6.20 Kanene 6.33 6.67 6.00 5.67 6.67 6.27 NC-2 6.00 6.33 6.33 6.67 6.33 6.33 US-249 7.17 7.11 7.33 7.33 7.11 7.21 Garima Super 7.44 7.67 7.67 7.67 7.67 7.62 C.D. (P=0.05) 0.46 0.49 0.42 0.51 0.50 0.23 gynoecious cu cum ber hy brids grown un der dif fer ent re gimes. South In dian Hort., 52: 97-103. 3. Bairagi, S. K., Ram, H.H., Singh, D.K. and Maurya, S.K. (2005). Ex ploi ta tion of hy brid vig our for yield and at trib ut ing traits in cu cum ber. In dian J. Hort., 62: 41-45. 4. Jeffery, C. (1983). Proc con fer ence on the bi ol ogy and chem is try of cucurbitaceae, Cor nell Uni ver sity, Ithaca, New York, Au gust 1980. 5. Nag, H., Singh, D., Bahadur, V. and Collis, J.P. (2012). Evaluation of ivy gourd (Coccinia cardifolia L.) genotypes in Allahabad agroclimatic condition. HortFlora Res. Spectrum, 1 (3) : 259-262. 6. Rastogi, K.B., Arya, Deepak and Deep, A. (1990). A note on in ter re la tion ship be tween yield and im por tant plant char ac ters of cu cum ber (Cucumis sativus L.). Veg Sci., 17: 102-104. 7. Sahni, G.P., Singh, R.K. and Saha, B.C. (1987). Genotypic and phenotypic vari abil ity in ridge gourd (Luffa acutangula Roxb.). In dian J. Agril. Sci., 57: 666-688. 8. Sharma, M.D. and Bhattarai, S.P. (2006). Per for mance of cu cum ber cultivars at low hill dur ing sum mer-rainy sea sons. J. Inst. Agric. Anim. Sci., 27: 169-171. 9. Solanki, S.S. and Seth, J.N. (1980). Stud ies and ge netic vari abil ity in cu cum ber. Prog. Hort., 12: 43-49. 10. Srivastava, V.K. and Srivastava, L.S. (1976). Genetic parameters, correlations coefficients and path coefficient analysis in bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.). Indian J. Hort., 33: 66-70. 11. Yadav, Y.C., Kumar S. and Singh, R. (2012). Studies on genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.); HortFlora Res. Spectrum., 1(1) : 34-47. Performance of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) hybrids in agroclimatic conditions of Allahabad 55 VA RI ETAL RE AC TION OF ROSE AGAINST BLACK SPOT CAUSED BY Diplocarpon rosae Wolf. IN ARUNACHAL PRADESH Sunil Kumar*, R.C.Shakywar, K.S.Tomar and M.Pathak Col lege of Hor ti cul ture and For estry, Cen tral Ag ri cul tural Uni ver sity, Pasighat -791102, Arunachal Pradesh *E-mail: sunu159@ya hoo.co.in AB STRACT: Va ri etal re ac tion trial was con ducted at In struc tional farm, De part ment of Flori cul ture, Col lege of Hor ti cul ture and For estry, Cen tral Ag ri cul tural Uni ver sity, Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh dur ing April 2011 to March 2012. Out of the thirty seven rose va ri et ies eval u ated un der open con di tion none were found highly re sis tant or re sis tant. Three va ri et ies namely Par a dise, Shabnam and Pixie were mod er ately re sis tant. Eleven varieties namely An gel ica Rinae, Atago, Folk lore, Granada, Hot Co coa, Mardigras, Mi das Touch, Mrinalini, Re vival, Tipus flame and Vic tor hugo were re corded mod er ately sus cep ti ble. Twelve va ri et ies viz., Baccardi, Claudia Ribond, Charies Mallerier, Crim son Lace, Dr. Pal, Im pa tient, Madam Dulbourde, Marcopolo, Mel ody, Rain bow End, Sonia and Sugandha gave sus cep ti ble re ac tion. Eleven va ri et ies viz., Angelique, Christiandior, Gem ini, Glad i a tor, Golden Ju bi lee, Priyadarsini, Sand, Centaury, R. R. M. Roy, Sweet Prom ise, Unforgotten and Vale of Cloyd were re corded highly sus cep ti ble re ac tion against black spot of rose in cited by Diplocarpon rosae Wolf. Keywords: Black spot, Diplocarpon rosae, open con di tion, rose, screen ing, va ri et ies. Black spot (Diplocarpon rosae Wolf.) dis ease is eco nom i cally the most im por tant and dev as tat ing dis ease in or na men tal roses (Horst and Cloyd, 7), es pe cially in hot and hu mid cli mates. Dis ease out breaks at the be gin ning of the grow ing sea son are ini ti ated by rain-splashed patho gen spores overwintered on fallen leaves. In fected leaves de velop char ac ter is tic dark spots, chlorosis, and drop pre ma turely. When left un treated, the dis ease can lead to re duced plant vigour, fewer blos soms, com pro mised aes thet ics, and even tual fail ure of the plant (Henn, 5). Pre vi ous re ports (Lily and Barnett, 9, Palmer et al., 11, and Svejda and Bolton, 13) firmly doc u mented dif fer en tial patho ge nic ity of Marssonina rosae (Lib.) Lind (Im per fect stage of Diplocarpon rosae Wolf) iso lates to var i ous spe cies and cultivars of roses. Other work ers (Jenkins, 8, Palmer and Semeniuk, 10 and Palmer et al., 12) re ported dif fer ent plant re sponse to a sin gle iso late. In Arunachal Pradesh there is some com mer cial rose pro duc tion and many rose fan ci ers face dif fi cul ties mainly due to black spot dis ease since it is ap par ently im pos si ble to pur chase mo dem plants with known re sis tance. No spe cific in for ma tion was avail able on M. rosae per for mance. There fore, pres ent in ves ti ga tion was car ried out to de ter mine the ex is tence of M. rosae vari ants within the state with an tic i pa tion to iden tify source of re sis tance against black spot dis ease of rose. MA TE RIALS AND METH ODS In ves ti ga tions on va ri etal eval u a tion of roses were car ried out at In struc tional farm, De part ment of Flori cul ture, Col lege of Hor ti cul ture and For estry, Cen tral Ag ri cul tural Uni ver sity, Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh dur ing April 2011 to March 2012. Thirty seven va ri et ies of rose were planted in raised beds with a spac ing of 1 ´ 1 m un der open con di tion. The plants were pro vided with all the in puts as per pack age and prac tices for rose cul ti va tion. The ex per i ment was laid out in ran dom ized com plete block de sign (RCBD) and rep li cated thrice with 9 plants for each rep li ca tion. The black spot dis ease de vel oped from the nat u ral in ocu lums. Ob ser va tions on dis ease ap pear ance was re corded at weekly in ter val by ran domly se lect ing 5 plants from each rep li ca tion for dis ease as sess ment. Dis ease se ver ity was re corded on the up per and lower leaf sur faces from ini tial growth stage to ma tu rity and rated on 1 to 6 scale (Stan dard dis ease Received : 10.9.2012 Accepted : 24.11.2012 HortFlora Research Spectrum, 2(1): 56-59 (Jan.-March 2013) ISSN : 2250-2823 se ver ity scale) where, 1 = 0.00 de fo li a tion (highly re sis tant), 2 = 1-10% de fo li a tion (re sis tant), 3 = 11- 25% de fo li a tion (mod er ately re sis tant), 4 = 26- 50% de fo li a tion (mod er ately sus cep ti ble), 5 = 51- 75% de fo li a tion (sus cep ti ble) and 6 = 76-100% (highly sus cep ti ble) re ac tion to black spot of rose (Holcomb, 5). Us ing the stan dard dis ease score chart, the per cent dis ease in dex (PDI) was worked out ac cord ing to the FAO (4) for mula and the data an a lyzed sta tis ti cally. Per cent dis ease in dex (PDI) = Sumof total numerical rating Total number of observations Maximum grade ´ ´ 100 RE SULTS AND DIS CUS SION The use of re sis tant ge no types is con sid ered to be the best method for dis ease man age ment. There fore, the pres ent in ves ti ga tion was car ried out to de ter mine source of re sis tance against Diplocarpon rosae Wolf. Thirty seven rose va ri et ies were eval u ated un der open con di tions dur ing April 2011 to March 2012 crop ping sea son (Ta ble 1). Out of the thirty seven rose va ri et ies eval u ated, none were found highly re sis tant and re sis tant. How ever, three va ri et ies namely Par a dise, Shabnam and Pixie were found mod er ately re sis tant. Eleven va ri et ies namely An gel ica Rinae, Atago, Folk lore, Granada, Hot Co coa, Mardigras, Mi das Touch, Mrinalini, Re vival, Tipus flame and Vic tor hugo showed mod er ately sus cep ti ble re ac tion. Twelve va ri et ies viz., Baccardi, Claudia Ribond, Charies Mallerier, Crim son Lace, Dr. Pal, Im pa tient, Madam Dulbourde, Marcopolo, Mel ody, Rain bow End, Sonia and Sugandha gave sus cep ti ble re ac tion. Eleven va ri et ies viz., Angelique, Christiandior, Gem ini, Glad i a tor, Golden Ju bi lee, Priyadarsini, Sand. Centaury, R. R. M. Roy, Sweet Prom ise, Unforgotten and Vale of Cloyd were re corded highly sus cep ti ble against black spot of rose in cited by Diplocarpon rosae Wolf. Among the dif fer ent va ri et ies screened data per tain ing to dis ease se ver ity (%), num ber of flow er ing shoots plant-1, flower di am e ter (cm), bud length (cm) and di am e ter of bud (mm) is pre sented in Ta ble 2. Three va ri et ies namely Par a dise (15.00, 26.33, 10.68, 11.40 and 12.15), Pixie (20.33, 25.68, 8.80, 9.40 and 12.66) and Shabnam (21.67, 24.00, 11.40, 10.26 and 11.78) showed mod er ately re sis tant re ac tion rang ing from 11-25% against black spot. Sim i larly, eleven va ri et ies, viz. An gel ica Renae (28.10, 8.30, 7.16, 4.06 and 1.80), Atago (31.27, 3.00, 10.50, 7.75 and 14.00), Folk lore (38.10, 2.50, 13.00, 4.75 and 2.00), Granada (31.30, 4.68, 10.00, 6.25 and 2.15), Hot Co coa (46.10, 4.00, 9.72, 3.40 and 2.00), Mardigras (43.10, 5.67, 10.73, 4.83 and 12.00), Mi das Touch (42.67, 5.00, 10.50, 6.50 and 2.40), Mrinalini Varietal reaction of rose against black spot caused by Diplocarpon rosae Wolf. in Arunachal Pradesh 57 Ta ble 1: Va ri etal re ac tion of rose against black spot caused by Diplocarpon rosae. Scale Range of Defoliation (%) Reaction No. of varieties Name of varieties 1 0.00 HR Nil Nil 2 1-10 R Nil Nil 3 11-25 MR 3 Paradise, Shabnam, Pixie 4 26-50 MS 11 Angelica Renae, Atago, Folklore, Granada, Hot Cocoa, Mardigras, Midas Touch, Mrinalini, Revival, Tipus flame, Victor Hugo 5 51-75 S 12 Baccardi, Claudia Ribond, Charles Mallerin, Crimson Lace, Dr. Pal, Impatient, Madam Dulbourde, Marcopolo, Melody, Rainbow End, Sonia, Sugandha 6 76-100 HS 11 Angelique, Sand. Centenary, Christian Dior, Gemini, Gladiator, Golden Jubilee, Priyadarsini, R.R.M.Roy, Sweet Promise, Unforgotten, Vale of Cloyd HR = Highly re sis tant; R = Re sis tant; MR = Mod er ately re sis tant; MS = Mod er ately sus cep ti ble; S = Sus cep ti ble; HS = Highly sus cep ti ble. (As per dis ease rat ing scale given by Holcomb,2002). 58 Kumar et al. (31.00, 2.67, 13.00, 5.68 and 2.15), Re vival (42.33, 2.66, 4.80, 5.60 and 1.98), Tipus flame (43.67, 3.00,7,00, 5.20 and 8.50) and Vic tor Hugo (34.67, 3.00, 11.50, 5.00 and 2.78) showed mod er ately sus cep ti ble re ac tion rang ing from (26-50 %). Like wise, twelve va ri et ies viz., Baccardi (63.67, 2.67, 8.50, 3.83 and 2.30), Claudia Ribond (62.33, 3.67,9.50,4.42 and7.00), Charles Mallerin (60.01, 3.00, 10.18, 5.60 and 2.20), Crim son Lace (65.78, 6.00, 5.60, 4.83 and 1.70), Dr. Pal (66.33, 3.00, 6.00, 7.50 and 2.20), Im pa tient (61.67, 4.00, 10.00, 9.00 and 2.00), Madam Dulbourde (59.00, 4.33, 11.17, 7.50 and 11.00), Marcopolo (65.67, 4.00, 6.50, 10.25 and 1.95), Mel ody (70.00, 3.00, 7.00, 6.00 and 2.20), Rain bow End (644.78, 15.00, 5.16, 4.30 and 11.00), Sonia (65.33, 3.67, 7.50, 6.00 and Ta ble 2: Va ri etal re sponse of rose against black spot dur ing April 2011 to March 2012. Varieties Disease Severity (%) No. of flowering shoots plant-1 Flower diameter (cm) Bud length (cm) Diameter of bud (mm) Angelica Renae 28.10 8.30 7.16 4.06 1.80 Angelique 82.00 6.50 5.50 4.25 2.60 Atago 31.27 3.00 10.50 7.75 14.00 Baccardii 63.67 2.67 8.50 3.83 2.30 Charles Mallerin 60.01 3.00 10.18 5.60 2.20 Christian Dior 79.00 4.00 11.32 10.58 6.00 Claudia Ribond 62.33 3.67 9.50 4.42 7.00 Crimson Lace 65.78 6.00 5.60 4.83 1.70 Dr. Pal 66.33 3.00 6.00 7.50 2.20 Folklore 38.10 2.50 13.00 4.75 2.00 Gemini 87.33 2.35 7.00 5.35 2.83 Gladiator 79.00 2.30 10.50 9.50 3.00 Golden Jubilee 87.33 4.00 5.50 3.40 2.00 Granada 31.30 4.68 10.00 6.25 2.15 Hot Cocoa 46.10 4.00 9.72 3.40 9.00 Impatient 61.67 4.00 10.00 9.00 2.00 Madam Delbourde 59.00 4.33 11.17 7.50 11.00 Marcopolo 65.67 4.00 6.50 10.25 1.95 Mardigras 43.10 5.67 10.73 4.83 12.00 Melody 70.00 3.00 7.00 6.00 2.20 dctlparMidas Touch 42.67 5.00 10.50 6.50 2.40 Mrinalini 31.00 2.67 13.00 5.68 2.15 Paradise 15..00 26.33 10.68 11.40 12.15 Pixie 20.33 25.68 8.80 9.40 12.66 Priyadarsini 87.33 9.50 8.75 4.75 1.45 R.R.M.Roy 89.00 2.33 5.00 8.25 6.75 Rainbow End 64.78 15.00 5.16 4.30 11.00 Revival 42.33 2.66 4.80 5.00 1.98 Sand. Centenary 89.00 3.50 7.50 3.00 3.90 Shabnam 21.67 24.00 11.40 10.26 11.78 Sonia 65.33 3.67 7.50 6.00 2.25 Sugandha 60.00 3.00 3.80 7.75 2.60 Sweet Promise 85.00 3.50 8.00 7.00 6.50 Tipus Flame 43.67 3.00 7.00 5.20 8.50 Unforgotten 87.00 3.00 4.20 7.00 2.80 Vale of Cloyd 89.11 5.00 4.00 4.00 2.50 Victor Hugo 34.67 3.00 11.50 5.00 2.78 2.25) and Sugandha (60.00, 3.00, 3.80, 7.75 and 2.60) de vel oped black spot rang ing from 51-75 %. How ever, eleven va ri et ies i.e. Angelique (82.00, 6.50, 5.50, 4.25 and 2.60), Chris tian Dior (79.00, 4.00, 11.32, 10.58 and 6.00), Gem ini (87.33, 2.35, 7.00, 5.35 and 2.83), Glad i a tor (79.00, 2.30, 10.50, 9.50 and 3.00), Golden Ju bi lee (87.33, 4.00, 5.50, 3.40 and 2.00), Priyadarsini (87.33, 9.5, 8.75, 4.75 and 1.45), R.R.M. Roy (89.00, 2.33, 5.00, 8.25 and 6.75), Sand. Cen te nary (89.00, 3.50, 7.50, 3.00 and 3.90), Sweet Prom ise (85.00, 3.50, 8.00, 7.00 and 6.5), Unforgotten (87.00, 3.00, 4.20, 7.00 and 2.80) and Vale of Cloyd (89.11, 5.00, 4.00, 4.00 and 2.50) showed highly sus cep ti ble re ac tion rang ing from 76-100 % in fec tion dur ing the course of the in ves ti ga tion. The re sults of pres ent in ves ti ga tion were in close con for mity with Baker & Ken neth, (1), Colbaugh et al. (2) and Drewes-Alvarez (3) who eval u ated 107 roses cultivars re ac tion to nat u rally hap pen ing rose black spot dis ease. They used dis ease of the en tire plant, with 0-no black spot, 1-slight de fo li a tion, 2-mi nor de fo li a tion, 3-mod er ate de fo li a tion, 4-se vere de fo li a tion and 5-com plete de fo li a tion. The cultivars Sir Thomas Lipton, Knock out, Rec Cas cade, Sea Foam, Caldwell Pink, The Fairy and New Dawn were found highly re sis tant to the dis ease, while Spice, Juane, Desprezx and Perle d’Or were also re sis tant but with ver i fied vari a tions in dis ease re ac tion dur ing the study. In the pres ent in ves ti ga tion, black spot screen ing meth od ol ogy for rose un der open con di tion has been es tab lished and few mod er ately re sis tant va ri et ies of rose against black spot have been iden ti fied. These va ri et ies may be uti lized for fu ture breed ing programme to evolve source of re sis tance against black spot of rose. REF ER ENCES 1. Baker and Ken neth, F. (1948). The his tory, dis tri bu tion and no men cla ture of the rose black- spot fun gus. Plant Dis ease Re port,, 32: 260-274. 2. Colbaugh, P.F., Crow, W.T. Mackay, W.A. and George, S.W. (2001). Black spot; Diplocarpon rosae Texas A&M Re search and Ex ten sion Cen ter at Dal las, Dal las, Texas, 75252. 3. Drewes-Alvarez, R. (2003). Dis ease / black spot. In: En cy clo pe dia of Rose Sci ence Neth er lands, 89: 148-153. 4. FAO (1967). Crop losses due to dis eases and pest. Food and Ag ri cul tural Or ga ni za tion, Rome. 5. Henn, A. (2010). The Plant Doc tor-Black spot and pow dery mil dew of rose. Am. Rose Ann. : 155-156. 6. Holcomb, G.E. (2002). Re ac tion of rose cultivars to black spot dis ease. Acta Hort., 424: 209-213. 7. Horst, R.K. and Cloyd, R.A. (2007). Com pen dium of Rose Dis eases. APS Press, St. Paul, MN. 96 p. 8. Jenkins. W.R. (1955). Vari abil ity of patho ge nic ity and phys i ol ogy of Diplocarpon rosae Wolf, the rose black spot fun gus. Amer. Rose Ann., 40:92-97. 9. Lily, V.G. and Barnett, H.L. (1951). Phys i ol ogy of the Fungi. McGraw Hill Book Com pany, New York. 464 10. Palmer, J.G. and Semeniuk. P. (1961). Com pa ra ble sus cep ti bil i ties of fifty spe cies and hy brid roses in oc u lated with black spot fun gus from plants field grown in Mary land in 1959. Amer. Rose Ann. 46:125-133. 11. Palmer, J.G., Semeniuk, P. and Stew art, R.N. (1966). Roses and Black spot. I. Patho ge nic ity to ex cised leaf lets of Diplocarpon rosae from seven geo graphic lo ca tions. Phytopatho. 56: 1277-1282. 12. Palmer, J.G., Semeniuk, P. and Stew art, R.N. (1966). Roses and Black spot. II. Sea sonal vari a tion in host sus cep ti bil ity and de cline of vir u lence in cul ture of conidia from Diplo- carpon rosae. Phytopatho. 56: 1283-1286. 13. Svejda, F.J. and Bolton, A.J. (1980). Resistance of rose hybrids to three races of Diplocarpon rosae. Can. J. Plant Pathol., 2:23-25. Varietal reaction of rose against black spot caused by Diplocarpon rosae Wolf. in Arunachal Pradesh 59 EF FECT OF GRADED LEV ELS OF NI TRO GEN ON PRO DUC TION OF FLOWER, OIL AND BULB OF TUBEROSE (Polianthes tuberosa L.) Avinash C. Rathore¹* and J. N. Singh De part ment of Hor ti cul ture, In sti tute of Ag ri cul tural Sci ences, Banaras Hindu Uni ver sity, Varanasi ¹Pres ent ad dress: Cen tral Soil and Wa ter Con ser va tion Re search and Train ing In sti tute, 2 Kaulagarh Road, Dehradun, Uttarakhand *E-mail:
[email protected] AB STRACT: A field ex per i ment was con ducted to de ter mine the ef fect of dif fer ent lev els of ni tro gen on flow er ing, es sen tial oil and bulb pro duc tion in tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa L. cv Rajat Rekha). Four treat ments of graded level of ni tro gen as (N 0 =0, N 1 =120, N 2 = 220 and N 3 = 320 kg/ha -1 ) were evaluated un der hot sub trop i cal cli ma tic con di tions on loamy soils. Ap pli ca tion of graded level of ni tro gen sig nif i cantly in creased the num ber of leaves / clump (20.47%), plant height (37.35%), leaf area (32.86%), spike length (35.25%), num ber of flo rets / spike (43.23%) and flower yield / clump (93.03%) in N 3 as com pared to con trol, N 1 and N 2 , re spec tively. Ni tro gen ap pli ca tion @ 220 kg ha -1 re duced days to flow er ing (by 13.36%), in creased vase life (by 17.57 %), en hanced es sen tial oil (by 0.128 %) and in creased to tal bulb yield (by 66.94%, 34.01%) and 3.97% over con trol, N 2 and N 3 , re spec tively. Keywords: Bulb yield, es sen tial oil, ni tro gen, tuberose. Tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa Linn.) known as Rajnigandha is an im por tant com mer cial flower crop. Tuberose oc cu pies a very se lec tive and spe cial po si tion in In dian or na men tal bul bous plants due to its lovely pretty flow ers, el e gance and pleas antly sweet fra grance. The flow ers are widely used for ta ble dec o ra tion, flo ral or na ments, cut flower, fra grance and es sen tial oil. Spikes are used in prep a ra tion of very ar tis tic gar lands in dif fer ent parts of the coun try and are in great de mand dur ing fes ti vals, mar riages and other func tions. There is 912 ha area un der cul ti va tion of tuberose. The bulbs of tuberose have me dic i nal im por tance that has been re ported since in Ve dic era. The bulbs are used for mak ing a paste by add ing with tur meric and but ter and ap plied over red rashes of in fants. Dried bulbs in a pow dered form are used as a rem edy for gon or rhea. Ni tro gen plays an im por tant role in im prov ing the plant growth be cause it is a ma jor con stit u ent of chlo ro phyll, pro tein and amino ac ids that ac cel er ates syn the sis of amino ac ids and chlo ro phyll. That in creases pro duc tion of green leaves, which syn the sized car bo hy drates, pro tein (Arnon., 2). It also im proves bulbs pro duc tion by pro mo tion of cell pro lif er a tion and stor age of starch in re sult ing cells. The main func tion of ni tro gen is the ini ti a tion of meristematic ac tiv ity which ac cel er ates cell di vi sion and cell-en large ment. Ni tro gen in flu ences emer gence, pro duc tion and qual ity of spikes (Singh, 9). Hence this study was un der taken to in ves ti gate the ef fect of graded lev els of ni tro gen ap pli ca tion on flow er ing, es sen tial oil and bulb pro duc tion in tuberose cv. Rajat Rekha. MA TE RI ALS AND METH ODS An ex per i ment was con ducted at In sti tute of Ag ri cul tural Sci ences, Banaras Hindu Uni ver sity, Varanasi, on me dium loamy soil hav ing pH 7.4, E.C. 0.4 mmhos/cm, or ganic car bon 0.50% and low avail able ni tro gen (209 kg ha -1 ) for two con sec u tive years (2000-2002). Healthy bulbs of sin gle type of tuberose cv Rajat Rekha were planted at 5 cm depth in the last week of March and the study was re peated again in the sub se quent year. Dur ing plant ing, half dose of ni tro gen (60, 110 and 160 kg ha -1 ) in the form of urea, full dose of phos pho rus (250 kg ha -1 ) as sin gle super phos phate and full dose of pot ash (250 kg ha -1 ) muriate of pot ash were ap plied as basal dose be fore bulbs plant ing. The re main ing half dose of ni tro gen was ap plied at the two month of plant ing. Treat ments of graded Received : 16.11.2012 Accepted : 10.12.2012 HortFlora Research Spectrum, 2(1): 60-63 (Jan.-March 2013) ISSN : 2250-2823 ni tro gen (N 0 =0, N 1 =120, N 2 =220 and N 3 =320 kg ha -1 ) were eval u ated and each treat ment was rep li cated thrice in a ran dom ized block de sign (RBD). The ob ser va tions were re corded from 3 plants/clump of each treat ment at weekly in ter vals on plant height, leaf num bers/clump, leaf area, days taken for flow er ing, spike length, num ber of flo rets per spike, flower yield, vase life, es sen tial oil and bulb yield. Es ti ma tion of es sen tial oil con tent was done by the sol vent ex trac tion method as out lined by Guenther (5). RE SULTS AND DIS CUS SION The re sults de picted in Ta ble 1 to 3 re veal that ap pli ca tion of ni tro gen sig nif i cantly in flu enced al most all growth pa ram e ters, flower qual ity, es sen tial oil (%) and bulb pro duc tion. The num ber of leaves/clump, plant height and leaf area sig nif i cantly in creased due to ap pli ca tion of var i ous graded lev els of ni tro gen. The num ber of leaves/clump, plant height and leaf area in creased by 20.47%, 37.35% and 32.86%, re spec tively (Ta ble 1) in N 3 over con trol. Fa vour able ef fect of ni tro gen in pro mot ing veg e ta tive growth of plant can be at trib uted to N ap pli ca tion which in creased me tab o lite trans port for growth (Marschner, 6). To tal leaf area, plant height and num ber of leaves per plant in creased sig nif i cantly with N ap pli ca tion. The in crease in leaf area due to photosynthetic abil ity re sult ing in pos i tive in flu ence on growth pa ram e ters (Anamika and Lavania, 1) in rose confirms present findings. Du ra tion re quired for emer gence of flower scape ex hib ited sig nif i cant in flu ence of ni tro gen ap pli ca tion. It ap pears that the ni tro gen fer til ized plants ex hib ited has tened flow er ing due to the simulative ef fect of ni tro gen in pro tein syn the sis and car bo hy drates as sim i la tion that even tu ally pro moted the de vel op ment of flo ral pri mor dial on the mother bulbs. Treat ment with 220 kg ha -1 ni tro gen re duced days for flow er ing by 13.36% as com pared to con trol (Ta ble 1). Singh (9) also re vealed similar reports in tuberose un der Agra con di tion. Ni tro gen ap pli ca tion sig nif i cantly in flu enced length of spike and num ber of flo rets per spike (Ta ble 2). The length of spike in creased by 35.25% and num ber of flo rets per spike by 43.23% was ob served in N 3 as com pared to con trol. A pro por tion ate in crease in length of spike and num ber of flo rets as a con se quence of ni tro gen fer til iza tion may be due to the sub stan tial in crease in the spike length. It is pos si ble that the pro duc tion of higher num ber of flo rets at higher N doses in creased the lon gev ity of spike, as pointed out by Arvind and Kale (3) in rose cultivars where they re ported an in crease in stick length with a cor re spond ing in crease in N dose. Vase life of spikes sig nif i cantly in creased by 17.57%, 12.26% and 10.61% in N 2 , N 1 and N 3 treat ments, re spec tively over con trol (Ta ble 2). Ac cord ing to Woltz (11), high doses of ni tro gen pro duce soft and ten der stalk, which causes del e te ri ous ef fects on vase life of cut flow ers. Age ing pet als show break down of pro tein and nu cleic ac ids at the on set of wilt ing and the ac tiv i ties of var i ous hydrolase’s en zymes are in creased dra mat i cally. En dog e nous eth yl ene pro duc tion shoots up in flow ers and pet als causes de te ri o ra tion of vase life. In age ing pet als at the cel lu lar level, lysosomal sec tion acts by the auto-phagic ac tiv ity of the vac u ole. Dur ing the last phase of se nes cence, the tonoplast rup tures and com plete di ges tion of the cy to plasm con stit u ents oc curs in the autolysins cells. The fac tors, which play a key role in gov ern ing the vase life of cut flow ers, in clude car bo hy drates sup ply and wa ter bal ance. Ad di tion of a sugar and an anti-mi cro bial agent to the hold ing so lu tion pro longs vase life sub stan tially. Low pH, how ever, helps in im prov ing the colour of flow ers (Mohan Ram and Chandra, 8). Ap pli ca tion of ni tro gen sig nif i cantly in creased spike yield/clump by 15.71%, 45.69% and 93.03% in N 3 as com pared to N 2 , N 1 and con trol, re spec tively. In crease in flower yield by ni tro gen ap pli ca tion may be at trib uted to in creased me tab o lite trans port re quired for growth (Marschner, 6). The per cent age of es sen tial oil in creased sig nif i cantly with the cor re spond ing Effect of graded levels of nitrogen on production of flower, oil and bulb of tuberose 61 62 Rathore and Singh in crease in the level of ni tro gen ap pli ca tion from N0 (con trol) to 220 kg/ha -1 but de clined at 320 kg/ha -1 . The high est es sen tial oil yield (0.128%) was re corded in N 2 treat ment as com pared to con trol (0.099%), N 1 (0.114%) and N 3 (0.116%) (Ta ble 2) be cause of high est N up take in N 2 treat ment, which has also been re ported by Mohandas and Sampath (7) in ge ra nium where herb age and oil yield in creased by the ap pli ca tion of ni tro gen. Bulb production was differed significantly with all doses of graded nitrogen application except N 3 , indicating that minimum bulb yield (12.25 tha -1 ), fresh weight of bulb / clump (124.41 g), number of bulb / clump (9.23), fresh weight of bulblet / clump (8.78 g), number of bulblet / clump (4.45) in the control plot. Further, the bulb yield increased significantly with different graded levels of nitrogen upto 220 kg ha -1 and failed to increase further at a dose of 320 kg/ha -1 . Nitrogen application @ 220 kg ha -1 produced the highest bulb yields (20.45 t ha), number of bulbs per clump 17.15, maximum bulb weight per clump 257.24 g, highest number of bulblets per clump 7.60 and maximum fresh weight of bulblets per clump was found 13.62 g as compared to control, N 1 and N 3 , and proved its superiority over all nitrogen applications. Nitrogen application @ 220 kg ha -1 produced maximum under ground biomass per ha and was proved most effective in improving bulb yield. Formation and development of bulbs/bulblets are directly related with nitrogen fertilization and depends upon promotion of cell proliferation and storage of starch in the resulting cells. Cell division Ta ble 1: Ef fect of graded levels of ni tro gen on plant growth and flower char ac ters. Treat ments (Nitrogen) Number of leaves/clump Plant height (cm) Leaf area (cm 2 ) Days taken to flowering 0 kg/ha 82.18 35.7 27.34 137.26 120 kg/ha 90.13 (9.67) 39.6 (10.87) 30.27 (10.71) 126.53 (7.82) 220 kg/ha 89.07 (8.38) 45.73 (28.13) 34.16 (24.95) 118.92 (13.36) 320 kg/ha 99.00 (20.47) 49.02 (37.35) 36.59 (32.86) 130.05 (5.25) C.D(P=0.05) 1.73 1.37 1.02 2.61 Figures in parentheses are percentage increase over control. Table 2: Effect of graded levels of nitrogen on flower yield and the essential oil. Treat ments (Nitrogen) Spike length (cm) Florets number / Spike Vase life (days) Flower yield/ clump (g) Essential oil (%) 0 kg/ha 75.88 27.62 8.48 24.68 0.099 120 kg/ha 85.98 (13.31) 31.32 (13.40) 9.52 (12.26) 32.70 0.114 220 kg/ha 95.26 (25.54) 35.67 (29.15) 9.97 (17.57) 41.17 0.128 320 kg/ha 102.63 (35.25) 39.56 (43.23) 9.38 (10.61) 47.64 0.116 CD P=0.05) 1.38 1.45 0.30 1.48 0.004 Ta ble 3: Ef fect of graded levels of ni tro gen on bulb yield and yield contributive char ac ters. Treat ments (Nitrogen) Bulbs yield (t/ha) Fresh weight of bulbs / clump (g) Number of bulbs / clump Fresh weight of bulblets /clump (g) Number of bulblets/ clump 0 kg/ha 120 kg/ha 220 kg/ha 320kg/ha C.D (P=0.05) 12.25 15.26 (24.57) 20.45 (66.94) 19.67 (60.57) 3.75 124.41 167.63 (21.41) 257.24 (93.94) 250.92 (77.97) 3.980 9.23 12.42 (34.56) 17.15 (85.81) 15.48 (67.71) 1.162 8.78 11.72 (33.49) 13.62 (55.13) 12.59 (43.39) 0.687 4.45 5.05 (13.48) 7.60 (70.79) 6.07 (36.40) 0.211 Figures in parentheses are percentage increase over control. and cell enlargement are accelerated by ample supply of nitrogen which initiates meristematic activity as reported by Crowther (4) in crops. The accumulation of starch or carbohydrates depends upon the surplus production of photosynthates, which depends upon rate and area available for photosynthesis. Formation and development of bulbs and bulb-lets increased due to more photosynthate accumulation on account of increased leaf area and number of leaves per clump under influence of nitrogen application. Talukdar et al (10) recorded profound increase in the size of bulbs and bulb yield per plant in tuberose. It could be concluded from this study that graded nitrogen (N 320 kg ha -1 ) influenced vegetative growth and flower yield while nitrogen @ (220 kg ha -1 tended to influence the bulb yield and essential oil production in a hot subtropical climatic conditions of loamy soils. REFERENCES 1. Anamika and Lavania, M.L. (1990). Effect of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium on growth, yield and quality of rose. Haryana J. Hortic. Sci., 19 (3-4): 291-298. 2. Arnon, D.I. (1949). The phys i ol ogy and bio chem is try of ni tro gen in green plants. 3. Arvind, S.S. and Kale, P.B. (1994). Stud ies on growth and flower pro duc tion of im por tant rose cultivars as in flu enced by ni tro gen and po tas sium lev els. Flori cul ture-Tech nol ogy, Trades and Trends (Eds. Prakash, J. and Bhandary, K.R.). Ox ford and IBH Pub lish ing Com pany Pri vate Lim ited, 66 Janpath, New Dehli, pp. 81-85. 4. Crow ther, F.M (1935). Com par a tive tri als of cal cium cynamide and other ni trog e nous fer til iz ers on crops. Em pire J. Expt Agric., 3:129-143. 5. Guenther, E. (1952). The essential oils. Vol. I-IV. D.Van Nastered Company, New York. 6. Marschner, H. (1983). In tro duc tion to the min eral nu tri tion of plants. Hand book of Plant Phys i ol ogy., 154:31-38. 7. Mohandas, S. and Sampath, V. (1984). Ef fi cacy of fo liar feed ing of ni tro gen on fo liage and oil yield in ge ra nium (Pelargonium graveolens L.). In dian Per fumer, 27(1): 9-11. 8. Mohan Ram, H.Y. and Chandra, Geeta (1980). Se nes cence of flow ers. J. Sci . In dus t. Re s. 39:337-341. 9. Singh, R.S. (1973). Stud ies of NPK on tuberose. Ph.D. The sis. Agril. Uni. Agra. 10. Talukdar, M.C., Baruah, N. and Mohanta Sangita (2003). Re sponse of N P K on yield and qual ity of tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa L.) cultivar sin gle. J. Or na. Hort. New Se ries, 6 (4) : 335-340; 11. Woltz, S.S. (1968). Effect of nitrogen, potassium and calcium on quality and yield of gladiolus flowers and corms. Proc. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci., 6:427-37 Effect of graded levels of nitrogen on production of flower, oil and bulb of tuberose 63 RE SPONSE OF OR GANIC MA NURES ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF MANGO (Mangifera in dica L.) CV. DASHEHARI Mohit Kumar and Rajesh Kumar* De part ment of Hor ti cul ture, G. B. Pant Uni ver sity of Ag ri cul ture & Tech nol ogy, Pantnagar – 263 145 (Uttarakhand) *E-mail: kamboj783@ya hoo.com AB STRACT: The pres ent in ves ti ga tion was car ried out at Hor ti cul ture Re search Cen tre, Patharchatta, G. B. Pant Uni ver sity of Ag ri cul ture and Tech nol ogy, Pantnagar. The ex per i ment was laid out with thir teen treat ments and three rep li ca tion in Ran dom ized Block De sign. Max i mum tree height was ob served with the ap pli ca tion of poul try ma nure 25 kg per tree, whereas, max i mum tree girth was re corded with ap pli ca tion of neem cake 30 kg per tree dur ing both the years. Min i mum num ber of fruits and fruit yield (kg) per tree was re corded in con trol, while max i mum num ber of fruits and fruit yield (kg) per tree with ap pli ca tion of 75 kg vermicompost per tree dur ing both the years. Ap pli ca tion of dif fer ent or ganic ma nures on mango trees is use ful for im prov ing the growth and yield char ac ter is tics. Keywords: Mango, or ganic ma nures, growth, yield. Mango is the main fruit of Asia and this fruit has de vel oped its own im por tance all over the world. Be ing an use ful and de li cious fruit, it was the part of cul ture and re li gion since long time. From an cient time, it has been fa vour ite of the kings and com mon ers be cause of its nu tri tive value, taste, at trac tive fra grance and health pro mot ing qual i ties and now, it is rec og nized as one of the best fruits in world mar ket. As many as 63 coun tries of the world have been grow ing mango but In dia is still a lead ing na tion in area and pro duc tion of mango (Chattopadhyay, 1). Man age ment of min eral nu tri tion of fruit trees is an im por tant prac tice in an or chard. In fact, in ten sive mango cul ture is not pos si ble with out ad e quate ma nur ing. In dis crim i nate use of chem i cals causes bi o log i cal im bal ance lead ing to soil de te ri o ra tion and en vi ron men tal pol lu tion. The ever in creas ing cost of chem i cal fer til iz ers and de cline in soil health due to ex ces sive de pend ence on chem i cal in puts left us with other op tion of uti liz ing bi o log i cal in puts like or ganic ma nures. Or ganic ma nures have been sought to be one of the an swers to re store the soil health apart from solv ing nu tri tional prob lem of plants. Keep ing these points in mind, the pres ent in ves ti ga tion was, there fore, un der taken to study the re sponse of or ganic ma nures on growth, yield and qual ity of mango cv. Dashehari. MA TE RI ALS AND METH ODS The ex per i ment was con ducted at Hor ti cul ture Re search Cen tre, Patharchatta, G. B. Pant Uni ver sity of Ag ri cul ture and Tech nol ogy, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand dur ing the years 2007-08 and 2008-09. The ex per i ment was con ducted on 18 years old mango trees of cv. Dashehari con sist ing of thir teen treat ments viz., T 1 -Con trol, T 2 -FYM 100 Kg/ tree, T 3 -FYM 125 Kg/ tree, T 4 -FYM 150 kg/tree, T 5 -Vermicompost 25 kg/tree, T 6 -Vermi- compost 50 kg/tree, T 7 -Vermicompost 75 kg/tree, T 8 -Poul try ma nure 25 kg/tree, T 9 -Poul try ma nure 50 kg/tree, T 10 -Poul try ma nure 75 kg/tree, T 11 -Neem cake 10 Kg/tree, T 12 -Neem cake 20 Kg/tree and T 13 -Neem cake 30 kg/tree in ‘Ran dom ized Block De sign’ with three rep li ca tions. The to tal num ber of trees in cluded in the ex per i ment was 39. All the se lected trees were al most uni form in growth and vig our. The trees were given uni form cul tural op er a tions dur ing the course of in ves ti ga tion. All treat ments were ap plied on 15 De cem ber 2007 and 2008. Full dose of farm yard ma nure, vermicompost, poul try ma nure and neem cake were ap plied as basal. No ma nure was ap plied to the con trol. Ob ser va tions on tree height, tree girth, tree vol ume and shoot length of each plant were re corded dur ing win ter month Received : 24.12.2012 Accepted : 20.1.2013 HortFlora Research Spectrum, 2(1): 64-67 (Jan.-March 2013) ISSN : 2250-2823 (Dor mancy pe riod). Flow er ing and fruit set (Re pro duc tive char ac ters) were re corded in terms of pan i cle length, num ber of flower per pan i cle and num ber of fruits per pan i cle at mar vel stage in March-April and yield pa ram e ters were re corded at the time of har vest. RE SULTS AND DIS CUS SION Growth It is evident from the Table 1 that the different treatments showed significant response on growth characters during both the years. Data showed that maximum tree height was observed with the application of poultry manure 25 kg per tree which was closely followed by application of FYM 150 kg per tree during both the years which is similar to the findings of Hemang et al. (2) who reported that the application of poultry manure 15 kg per plant attained maximum plant height in banana. Maximum tree girth was recorded with application of neem cake 30 kg per tree which was significant over T 1 , T 5 , T 6 , T 11 and T 12 treatments followed by vermicompost 75 kg per tree in the year 2007-08. In 2008-09, trees attained maximum tree girth with vermicompost 75 kg per tree. Ob ser va tions re vealed (Ta ble 1) that cal cu lated tree vol ume was min i mum with ap pli ca tion of vermicompost 50 kg per tree in 2007-08, while in 2008-09, it was min i mum in con trol trees. The max i mum tree vol ume in 2007-08 was cal cu lated with ap pli ca tion of poul try ma nure 25 kg per tree confirming to reports of Yadav et al. (8), and in 2008-09 cal cu lated tree vol ume was max i mum with the ap pli ca tion of vermicompost 75 kg per tree. Max i mum shoot length was ob served with ap pli ca tion of vermicompost 75 kg per tree fol lowed by neem cake 30 kg per tree and min i mum shoot length was re corded in con trol dur ing both the years. Ap pli ca tion of or ganic ma nures have been re ported to fa cil i tate the wider ab sorp tion of macro and mi cro nu tri ents which helps in better growth and de vel op ment of plants (Kononova, 3). Better growth in the plants treated with or ganic ma nures may be be cause of more IAA biosynthesis in the plants. This is also in agree ment with the find ing of Li et al. (4) who re ported that or ganic ma nures in creased IAA and cytokinins in the soil. Response of organic manures on growth and yield of mango (Mangifera indica L.) cv. Dashehari 65 Ta ble 1: Re sponse of or ganic ma nures on growth char ac ters of mango cv. Dashehari Treatment Tree height (m) Tree girth (cm) Tree volume (m 3 ) Shoot length (cm) 2007 2008 2007 2008 2007 2008 2007 2008 T 1 -Control 6.50 6.67 77.00 81.33 130.37 141.43 10.80 10.73 T 2 -FYM 100 kg/ tree 6.33 6.70 79.33 85.67 132.17 149.25 11.90 11.93 T 3 -FYM 125 kg/ tree 6.12 6.45 80.33 87.33 140.00 156.69 12.85 12.78 T 4 -FYM 150 kg/ tree 6.47 6.73 78.67 85.67 151.22 166.41 13.00 13.10 T 5 -Vermicompost 25 kg/tree 6.07 6.44 67.67 75.67 129.77 147.22 13.45 13.53 T 6 -Vermicompost 50 kg/tree 5.88 6.20 69.00 77.00 125.35 143.51 13.72 13.90 T 7 -Vermicompost 75 kg/tree 6.17 6.45 88.33 98.33 159.05 184.23 14.70 14.80 T 8 - Poultry manure 25 kg/tree 6.77 6.98 82.00 87.67 166.30 178.65 12.80 12.95 T 9 -Poultry manure 50 kg/tree 6.00 6.28 78.00 83.67 136.20 150.76 13.55 13.43 T 10 -Poultry manure 75 kg/tree 6.28 6.58 79.00 85.00 157.29 171.95 13.77 13.60 T 11 -Neem cake 10 kg/tree 5.93 6.21 74.67 81.00 134.13 147.26 13.38 13.28 T 12 -Neem cake 20 kg/tree 6.27 6.55 74.67 80.00 150.62 166.16 13.93 14.10 T 13 -Neem cake 30 kg/tree 6.23 6.52 90.00 96.00 154.73 170.50 14.13 14.23 C.D. (P=0.05) 0.56 0.54 10.76 10.42 15.00 19.22 0.40 0.59 66 Kumar and Kumar . i r a h e h s a D . v c o g n a m f o s r e t c a r a h c d l e i y n o s e r u n a m c i n a g r o f o e s n o p s e R : 2 e l b a T t n e m t a e r T h t g n e l e l c i n a P ) m c ( f o r e b m u n l a t o T e l c i n a p r e p r e w o l f t e s t i u r f l a i t i n I ) e g a t s a e P ( t e s t i u r f l a n i F e g a t s t s e v r a H ( ) f o r e b m u N e e r t / t i u r f d l e i Y t i u r F ) e e r t / g k ( 7 0 0 2 8 0 0 2 7 0 0 2 8 0 0 2 7 0 0 2 8 0 0 2 7 0 0 2 8 0 0 2 7 0 0 2 8 0 0 2 7 0 0 2 8 0 0 2 T 1 l o r t n o C - 7 1 . 8 1 0 5 . 9 1 7 6 . 6 9 7 1 0 0 . 0 3 8 1 5 0 . 5 1 9 . 4 0 1 . 0 9 0 . 0 0 0 . 5 7 4 3 3 . 3 3 1 8 0 . 8 6 0 1 . 0 2 T 2 e e r t / g k 0 0 1 M Y F - 0 5 . 5 2 0 5 . 4 2 3 3 . 3 3 8 1 7 6 . 6 0 8 1 6 8 . 5 3 8 . 5 5 1 . 0 6 1 . 0 7 6 . 6 9 5 7 6 . 6 5 2 3 9 . 0 9 0 6 . 8 3 T 3 e e r t / g k 5 2 1 M Y F - 7 0 . 0 2 7 1 . 1 2 0 0 . 0 4 8 1 3 3 . 3 6 8 1 6 8 . 5 7 7 . 5 3 1 . 0 3 1 . 0 7 6 . 6 1 6 7 6 . 6 6 2 8 7 . 4 9 9 0 . 8 3 T 4 e e r t / g k 0 5 1 M Y F - 7 8 . 2 2 0 2 . 3 2 0 0 . 0 4 9 1 3 3 . 3 3 9 1 3 0 . 6 1 9 . 5 3 1 . 0 4 1 . 0 0 0 . 5 4 6 0 0 . 0 5 2 4 8 . 8 9 8 2 . 6 3 T 5 e e r t / g k 5 2 t s o p m o c i m r e V - 7 0 . 4 2 3 5 . 4 2 3 3 . 3 9 9 1 0 0 . 0 1 9 1 0 7 . 6 3 5 . 6 9 1 . 0 0 2 . 0 0 0 . 0 0 7 3 3 . 6 9 2 3 4 . 7 0 1 3 3 . 2 4 T 6 e e r t / g k 0 5 t s o p m o c i m r e V - 0 1 . 5 2 0 5 . 4 2 0 0 . 0 2 8 1 7 6 . 6 1 8 1 1 1 . 7 7 0 . 7 1 2 . 0 3 2 . 0 0 0 . 0 5 7 3 3 . 8 0 3 3 6 . 5 1 1 5 0 . 4 4 T 7 e e r t / g k 5 7 t s o p m o c i m r e V - 0 9 . 4 2 0 0 . 6 2 3 3 . 3 1 9 1 3 3 . 3 5 8 1 2 2 . 7 8 2 . 7 1 2 . 0 4 2 . 0 0 0 . 0 4 8 7 6 . 6 6 3 3 4 . 7 2 1 7 3 . 2 5 T 8 e e r t / g k 5 2 e r u n a m y r t l u o P - 7 4 . 3 2 7 1 . 3 2 7 6 . 6 3 0 2 3 3 . 8 3 9 1 3 2 . 6 2 1 . 6 4 1 . 0 1 1 . 0 0 0 . 0 0 7 0 0 . 5 8 2 3 1 . 6 0 1 1 7 . 0 4 T 9 e e r t / g k 0 5 e r u n a m y r t l u o P - 7 0 . 9 1 0 5 . 9 1 0 0 . 0 1 8 1 0 0 . 0 2 8 1 4 0 . 6 2 3 . 6 0 1 . 0 4 1 . 0 3 3 . 3 7 6 0 0 . 5 8 2 3 1 . 3 0 1 1 7 . 0 4 T 0 1 e e r t / g k 5 7 e r u n a m y r t l u o P - 3 3 . 4 2 0 3 . 5 2 3 3 . 3 1 9 1 0 0 . 0 1 9 1 4 1 . 6 9 1 . 6 2 1 . 0 3 1 . 0 3 3 . 3 1 7 3 3 . 7 9 2 7 1 . 8 0 1 7 4 . 2 4 T 1 1 e e r t / g k 0 1 e k a c m e e N - 7 3 . 3 2 3 0 . 4 2 0 0 . 0 4 0 2 3 3 . 3 5 9 1 7 1 . 7 0 2 . 7 1 2 . 0 4 2 . 0 7 6 . 6 8 6 3 3 . 8 7 2 7 6 . 6 0 1 6 7 . 9 3 T 2 1 e e r t / g k 0 2 e k a c m e e N - 7 0 . 3 2 0 0 . 5 2 7 6 . 6 5 7 1 3 3 . 3 5 8 1 2 0 . 7 4 0 . 7 1 2 . 0 0 2 . 0 7 6 . 6 2 7 3 3 . 9 8 2 1 6 . 0 1 1 8 1 . 2 4 T 3 1 e e r t / g k 0 3 e k a c m e e N - 7 0 . 2 2 7 6 . 1 2 3 3 . 3 7 9 1 0 0 . 0 8 8 1 5 0 . 7 3 0 . 7 1 2 . 0 9 1 . 0 7 6 . 6 4 7 0 0 . 8 0 3 6 9 . 4 1 1 4 0 . 4 4 ) 5 0 . 0 = P ( . D . C 4 4 . 4 8 2 . 4 7 5 . 8 3 1 2 7 . 2 0 2 3 4 . 0 0 4 . 0 0 2 0 . 0 7 2 0 . 0 0 0 . 0 5 1 8 . 6 3 4 5 . 8 3 6 . 5 The treatments (Table 2) showed significant response on yield characters during both the years. Data revealed a significant impact of various treatments on panicle length. Data indicated that the application of FYM 100 kg per tree and vermicompost 75 kg per tree were best having maximum panicle length in both the years. While, control trees showed minimum panicle length in both the years. The maximum number of flowers per panicle was recorded with application of 10 kg neem cake per tree which was closely followed by 25 kg poultry manure per tree applied in the years 2007-08 and 2008-09. All the treatments showed significant response over control on initial fruit set (Pea stage) and final fruit set (Harvest stage) per cent during both the years. The maximum initial fruit set (Pea stage) was recorded with application of 75 kg vermicompost per tree which was closely followed by 10 kg neem cake per tree in the years 2007-08 and 2008-09. The data indicated that higher fruit retention (Harvest stage) was recorded in the treatments T 6 , T 7 , T 11 , T 12 and T 13 in year 2007-08, while, in the year 2008-09, the higher fruit retention was recorded under the treatments T 7 and T 11 . However, minimum final fruit retention (Harvest stage) was observed in control treatment confirming to the results of Shirol et al. (6) in Sapota and Yadav et al. (8) in guava. Data re corded on num ber of fruits and yield (kg) per tree (Ta ble 2) showed that there was min i mum num ber of fruits and yield (kg) per tree in con trol, while, max i mum num ber of fruits per tree and yield (kg) per tree with ap pli ca tion of 75 kg vermicompost per tree fol lowed by 50 kg vermicompost per tree and 30 kg neem cake per tree dur ing both the years. The in crease in yield and yield con trib ut ing char ac ters due to ap pli ca tion of vermicompost and neem cake have been due to their con tri bu tion to more C/N ra tio and greater pres ence of es sen tial plant nu tri ents for phys i o log i cal pro cesses. This may lead to better met a bolic ac tiv i ties in the plant which ul ti mately leads high pro tein and car bo hy drates syn the sis (Singh et al., 7). In crease in yield and other yield con trib ut ing char ac ters ap par ently re sulted from im proved chem i cal and phys i cal prop er ties of the soil that were in duced by or ganic ma nure ap pli ca tion (Mahendra et al., 5). REF ER ENCES 1. Chattopadhyay, T.K. (1994). A text book on Pomology, Nu tri tion of Fruit Plants and Or chard Ma nur ing Prac tices, Ed. Kalyani Pub lish ers, 153 p. 2. Hemang, O.B., Asante, J.S. and Fer ris, R.S.B. (1995). In flu ence of poul try ma nure and in or ganic fer til izer on plan tain growth and yield. Musafrica, 3(6): 1-4. 3. Kononva, M.M., Nowakowski, T.Z. and Newman, A.C.D. (1966). In : Soil Organic Matter. Its nature, its role in soil formation and in soil fertility. (2 nd ed.). Perganeio Press, Oxford. 523 p. 4. Li, X.J., Dong, S.F. and Liu, Y.S. (1998). De ter mi na tion of IAA and cytokinins in the soil with dif fer ent or ganic ma nure for pot-cul tured ap pli ca tions. Plant Physiol. Comm., 34(3): 183-185. 5. Mahendra, S.B., Ken neth, S.D., Venkateswara, R.S. and Vencent, E.P. (1988). Ap pli ca tion of poul try ma nure in flu ence Thomp son Seed less grape pro duc tion and soil prop er ties. Hort. Sci., 23(6): 1010-1012. 6. Shirol, A.M., Kanamadi, V.C. and Thammaiah, N. (2003). Ef fect of or ganic and in or ganic fer til iz ers on growth and yield of sapota cv. Kalipatti. Or ganic Farm ing in Hor ti cul ture for Sus tain able Pro duc tion, 29-30 Au gust, CISH, Lucknow. pp 36. 7. Singh, Kirti, Gill, I.S. and Verma, O.P. (1970). Studies on poultry manure in relation to vegetable production, I-Cauliflower. Indian J. Hort., 27(1-2): 42 8. Yadav, R.I., Singh, R.K., Kumar, P. and Singh, A.K. (2012). Effect of nutrient management through organic sources on the productivity of guava (Psidium guajava L.). HortFlora Res. Spectrum, 1(2) : 158-161. Response of organic manures on growth and yield of mango (Mangifera indica L.) cv. Dashehari 67 EF FECT OF DIF FER ENT PACK AG ING FILMS ON SHELF LIFE AND QUAL ITY OF PEAR FRUITS UN DER SUPER MAR KET CON DI TIONS B.V.C. Mahajan¹, Nav Prem Singh²* and Mahesh Kumar¹ ¹Punjab Hor ti cul tural Postharvest Tech nol ogy Cen tre, ²De part ment of Fruit Sci ence, P.A.U., Ludhiana 141 004 *E-mail:
[email protected] AB STRACT: Pear fruits cv. ‘Patharnakh’ were har vested at phys i o log i cal ma ture stage, packed in pa per moulded tray and tightly wrapped with dif fer ent pack ag ing films viz. Low den sity poly eth yl ene (LDPE), High den sity poly eth yl ene ( HDPE), and Shrink. The film-packed fruits and con trol (with out film pack ag ing) were stored un der super-mar ket con di tions i.e. 20-21°C and 85-90% RH and an a lyzed for var i ous physico-chem i cal pa ram e ters af ter ev ery 7 days in ter val. Shrink film proved to be most ef fec tive in ex tend ing the stor age life of pear fruits up to three weeks and main tained su pe rior qual ity as in di cated by lower weight loss, de sir able fruit firm ness, to tal sol u ble sol ids, to tal sug ars, acid ity, and higher organoleptic score. Keywords: Pear, poly meric films, shelf-life, qual ity. In In dia pear is grown in warm hu mid sub-trop i cal plains and cold dry tem per ate re gions oc cu py ing an area of 37,970 ha with an an nual pro duc tion of 3.34 lakh MT (Anon., 3). ‘Patharnakh’ is the lead ing cultivar of pear, pre dom i nantly grown in Punjab state. The har vest ing of Patharnakh pear starts in the third weak of July and con tin ues up to the end of Au gust. Gen er ally, this pe riod co in cides with heavy rain fall and high tem per a ture, which in ter feres with post-har vest qual ity and mar ket abil ity of the fruits and ul ti mately leads to glut and postharvest losses. In Punjab, these fruits are ei ther mar keted in gunny bags or loose or some times in wooden boxes, thus fetch lower prices in the mar kets. The role of pack ag ing for hor ti cul tural pro duce seems to be still un der es ti mated. Pack ag ing of fresh fruits is es sen tial in the whole dis tri bu tion cy cle, start ing from pro ducer to the fi nal user.The ba sic prin ci pal of pack ag ing tech nol ogy is that once pro duce is placed in a pack age and sealed with poly meric films, an en vi ron ment dif fer ent from am bi ent con di tions will be es tab lished in side the pack age such as high CO 2 and low ox y gen which helps in main tain ing the qual ity and in creasing the shelf life (Hardenburg, 6 and Zora et al, 15). Hence the pres ent in ves ti ga tion was planned to study the ef fect of poly meric films on the stor age life and qual ity of pear fruits un der super mar ket con di tion i.e. at 20±1°C tem per a ture. MA TE RI ALS AND METH ODS The fruits of pear cv Patharnakh were har vested at phys i o log i cal ma ture stage. The bruised and dis eased fruits were sorted out, and only healthy and uni form sized fruits were se lected for the study. Three types of pack ag ing films viz Low den sity poly eth yl ene film (LDPE 25 µ), High den sity poly eth yl ene film (HDPE 20 µ) and Shrink film (10 µ) were used for pack ag ing of pear fruits in pa per moulded trays (22 cm × 13 cm). Pear fruits were packed in trays and tightly sealed with dif fer ent pack ag ing films. There af ter, the packed fruits as well as con trol (non-packed) fruits were stored at 20-21°C and 85-90% RH (super-mar ket con di tions). The ex per i ment con sisted of 4 treat ments and 5 stor age in ter vals and laid out in com pletely ran dom ized de sign with three rep li ca tions for each treat ment and each stor age in ter val. The var i ous physico-chem i cal pa ram e ters were re corded at weekly in ter val for four weeks. The phys i o log i cal loss in weight (PLW) af ter each in ter val of stor age was cal cu lated by sub tract ing fi nal weight from the ini tial weight of the fruits and ex pressed in per cent. The fruit firm ness was mea sured with the help of a pen etrom eter (Model FT- 327, USA) us ing 8 mm stain less steel probe and Received : 20.12.2012 Accepted : 22.1.2013 HortFlora Research Spectrum, 2(1): 68-71 (Jan.-March 2013) ISSN : 2250-2823 ex pressed in terms of kilogram force pres sure (Kg force). The over all organoleptic rat ing of the fruits was done by a panel of five judges on the ba sis of ex ter nal ap pear ance of fruits, tex ture, taste, and fla vor, mak ing use of a 9-point Hedonic scale (Amerine et al., 2). The to tal sol u ble sol ids (TSS) of the fruit juice were de ter mined us ing a hand refractometer and ex pressed as per cent TSS af ter mak ing the tem per a ture cor rec tion at 20ºC. The to tal sug ars and titratable acid ity were es ti mated as per stan dard pro ce dure (AOAC, 4). RE SULTS AND DIS CUS SION The phys i o log i cal loss in weight (PLW) of fruits, in gen eral, in creased with the ad vance ment of stor age pe riod rather slowly in the be gin ning but at a faster pace as the stor age pe riod ad vanced (Ta ble 1). The shrink film packed fruits re corded the low est mean PLW (3.50%). The un packed fruits (con trol) showed the high est PLW (6.20%). The PLW of fruits packed in shrink film ranged be tween 1.20 to 6.30 per cent from 7 to 28 days of stor age as com pared to con trol whereas PLW ranged be tween 3.10 to 10.05 per cent dur ing four weeks of stor age. The fruits packed in dif fer ent pack ag ing films re corded lower weight loss, which is ob vi ous due to role of films in check ing rate of tran spi ra tion /res pi ra tion and main tain ing higher hu mid ity in side the wrap pers (Ben Yehoshua, 5). The lower PLW has been re ported in heat shrink able cryo vac film in Nagpur man da rin (Sonkar and Ladaniya, 12). It is ev i dent from the data that the fruit firm ness, in gen eral fol lowed a de clin ing trend com men su rate with ad vance ment in stor age pe riod (Ta ble 1). The fruits packed in shrink film main tained the high est av er age firm ness (5.92 kg force) closely fol lowed by cling film (6.40 kg force) and also at all stages of stor age in ter vals. The con trol fruits reg is tered the low est mean firm ness (5.38 kg force). In case of shrink film packed fruits the de cline in firm ness was grad ual, whereas in case of con trol fruits, the de cline was found to be sharp. This re veals that shrink film pack ag ing de lays the soft en ing pro cess in pear fruits, and fi nally re tained the de sir able fruits firm ness, which might be due to re duced tran spi ra tion loss and res pi ra tion ac tiv ity and thus re tained more tur gid ity of the cells as ob served in pome gran ate fruits (Nanda et al, 9) The max i mum sen sory score (Ta ble 1) was shown by fruits packed in shrink film (7.76). On the other hand, con trol fruits reg is tered the min i mum sen sory score (6.38). The sen sory score of shrink packed fruits in creased grad u ally up to 21 days and there af ter de clined, whereas, in con trol fruits, the sen sory score in creased up to 14 days of stor age and there af ter de clined at faster pace. The shrink film packed fruits were rated as very much de sir able to mod er ately de sir able af ter 3 and 4 weeks of stor age as com pared to con trol which were found ac cept able up to 2 weeks of stor age. The de vel op ment of better sen sory score in the shrink packs could be pos si bly due to cre ation of fa vour able gas eous at mo sphere un der con ge nial tem per a ture (Heaton et al, 7). The fruits packed in shrink film re corded max i mum TSS con tent (12.11%). The con trol fruits re corded the low est av er age TSS con tent (11.23%). It was fur ther ob served that in shrink film packed fruits the TSS con tent in creased slowly and steadily up to 21 days (13.25%) and there af ter grad u ally de clined af ter 28 days stor age (10.95%). On the other hand, con trol fruits re corded a faster rise in TSS con tent up to 14 days (13.23%) and there af ter de clined at a faster rate and re corded 9.15% TSS at the end of 4 weeks of stor age (Ta ble 2). The fruits packed in shrink film (Ta ble 2) re corded max i mum to tal sugar con tent (8.36%). The con trol fruits re corded the low est av er age to tal sugar con tent (7.80%). It was fur ther ob served that in shrink film packed fruits the to tal sugar con tent in creased slowly and steadily up to 21 days (9.60%) and there af ter grad u ally de clined af ter 28 days stor age (7.50%). On the other hand, con trol fruits re corded a faster rise in to tal sugar con tent up to 14 days (9.50%) and there af ter de clined at a faster rate and re corded 6.00% to tal sugar at the end of 4 weeks of stor age. The de layed in crease in TSS and to tal sug ars over a lon ger pe riod of time in shrink wrapped pear fruits might be at trib uted to de lay in eth yl ene pro duc tion and res pi ra tion rate of fruits (Abeles et al, 1). The in crease in TSS/sug ars dur ing stor age may pos si bly be due to break down of starch into sug ars, as on com plete hy dro ly sis of starch no Effect of different packaging films on shelf life and quality of pear fruits under super market conditions 69 70 Mahajan et al. . s n o i t i d n o c t e k r a m r e p u s r e d n u e g a r o t s g n i r u d s t i u r f r a e p f o y t i l a u q y r o s n e s d n a s s e n m r i f , W L P n o s m l i f g n i g a k c a p t n e r e f f i d f o t c e f f E . 1 e l b a T s t n e m t a e r T ) % ( W L P ) e c r o f g k ( s s e n m r i F y t i l a u q y r o s n e S ) s y a D ( l a v r e t n i e g a r o t S ) s y a D ( l a v r e t n i e g a r o t S ) s y a D ( l a v r e t n i e g a r o t S 7 4 1 1 2 8 2 n a e M 0 7 4 1 1 2 8 2 n a e M 0 7 4 1 1 2 8 2 n a e M m l i f E P D L 0 8 . 1 0 9 . 2 5 8 . 4 0 2 . 7 9 1 . 4 0 0 . 8 0 3 . 7 0 9 . 5 0 9 . 4 0 2 . 4 6 0 . 6 0 0 . 7 0 5 . 7 0 6 . 7 0 7 . 7 0 3 . 6 2 2 . 7 m l i f E P D H 0 1 . 2 8 1 . 3 0 1 . 5 0 6 . 7 0 5 . 4 0 0 . 8 0 2 . 6 0 8 . 5 0 8 . 4 0 0 . 4 6 7 . 5 0 0 . 7 0 3 . 7 0 5 . 7 0 5 . 7 0 2 . 6 0 1 . 7 m l i f k n i r h S 0 2 . 1 0 3 . 2 0 2 . 4 0 3 . 6 0 5 . 3 0 0 . 8 0 9 . 6 0 5 . 6 0 5 . 5 0 1 . 5 0 4 . 6 0 0 . 7 0 8 . 7 0 0 . 8 0 5 . 8 0 5 . 7 6 7 . 7 l o r t n o C 0 1 . 3 5 8 . 4 0 8 . 6 5 0 . 0 1 0 2 . 6 0 0 . 8 0 0 . 6 0 1 . 5 0 3 . 4 0 5 . 3 8 3 . 5 0 0 . 7 0 9 . 7 0 0 . 8 0 5 . 5 0 5 . 3 8 3 . 6 n a e M 5 0 . 2 1 3 . 3 4 2 . 5 9 7 . 7 0 0 . 8 0 6 . 6 3 8 . 5 8 8 . 4 0 2 . 4 0 0 . 7 3 6 . 7 8 7 . 7 0 3 . 7 8 8 . 5 ) 5 0 . 0 = P ( D C = t n e m t a e r T 0 2 . 0 8 1 . 0 5 1 . 0 = l a v r e t n i e g a r o t S 2 1 . 0 9 0 . 0 0 1 . 0 2 4 . 0 = l a v r e t n i e g a r o t S x t n e m t a e r T 8 3 . 0 0 3 . 0 . s n o i t i d n o c t e k r a m r e p u s r e d n u e g a r o t s g n i r u d s t i u r f r a e p f o y t i l a u q y r o s n e s d n a s s e n m r i f , W L P n o s m l i f g n i g a k c a p t n e r e f f i d f o t c e f f E . 2 e l b a T s t n e m t a e r T ) % ( S S T ) % ( s r a g u s l a t o T ) % ( y t i d i c A ) s y a D ( l a v r e t n i e g a r o t S s y a D ( l a v r e t n i e g a r o t S ) s y a D ( l a v r e t n i e g a r o t S ) 0 7 4 1 1 2 8 2 n a e M 0 7 4 1 1 2 8 2 n a e M 0 7 4 1 1 2 8 2 n a e M m l i f E P D L 0 0 . 0 1 0 5 . 0 1 0 7 . 1 1 0 9 . . 2 1 4 2 . 0 1 1 6 . 0 1 0 2 . 7 0 2 . 8 0 5 . 8 0 3 . 9 0 3 . 7 0 1 . 8 0 5 . 0 0 4 . 0 0 3 . 0 5 2 . 0 5 1 . 0 2 3 . 0 m l i f E P D H 0 0 . 0 1 5 2 . . 0 1 0 5 . 1 1 0 5 . 2 1 0 8 . 9 5 9 . 0 1 0 2 . 7 0 0 . 8 0 4 . 8 0 0 . 9 0 1 . 7 4 9 . 7 0 5 . 0 2 4 . 0 3 3 . 0 3 2 . 0 5 1 . 0 3 3 . 0 m l i f k n i r h S 0 0 . 0 1 0 0 . 1 1 0 3 . 2 1 0 2 . 3 1 0 9 . 0 1 8 4 . 1 1 0 2 . 7 0 7 . 8 0 8 . 8 0 6 . 9 0 5 . 7 6 3 . 8 0 5 . 0 5 4 . 0 4 3 . 0 7 2 . 0 9 1 . 0 5 3 . 0 l o r t n o C 0 0 . 0 1 0 3 . . 1 1 0 0 . 3 1 0 2 . 0 1 0 1 . 9 8 5 . 0 1 0 2 . 7 0 9 . 8 0 5 . 9 0 4 . 7 0 0 . 6 0 8 . 7 0 5 . 0 0 4 . 0 0 3 . 0 2 2 . 0 6 1 . 0 2 3 . 0 n a e M 0 0 . 0 1 5 7 . 0 1 3 1 . 2 1 7 9 . 1 1 1 0 . 0 1 0 2 . 7 5 4 . 8 0 8 . 8 3 8 . 8 4 0 . 7 0 5 . 0 2 4 . 0 2 3 . 0 4 2 . 0 6 1 . 0 ) 5 0 . 0 = P ( D C = t n e m t a e r T 1 1 . 0 0 1 . 0 S N = l a v r e t n i e g a r o t S 8 0 . 0 6 0 . 0 5 0 . 0 = l a v r e t n i e g a r o t S x t n e m t a e r T 4 2 . 0 0 2 . 0 S N fur ther in crease in sug ars oc curs and sub se quently a de cline in these pa ram e ters is pre dict able as they along with other or ganic ac ids are pri mary sub strate for res pi ra tion (Wills et al., 14). Sim i lar find ings of in crease in TSS and sug ars of plum fruits dur ing stor age have been re ported Mahajan et al., (8). The data re vealed that acid ity of pear fruits ex pe ri enced a lin ear de cline as the stor age pe riod ad vanced (Ta ble 2). In shrink film packed fruits the acid ity ranged from 0.50 to 0.19 per cent, and in con trol fruits, it ranged from 0.50 to 0.12 per cent from 7 to 28 days of stor age. The de crease in titratable ac ids dur ing stor age may be at trib uted to uti li za tion of or ganic acid in pyruvate decarboxylation re ac tion occuring dur ing the rip en ing pro cess of fruits (Pool et al. 10). Venkatesha and Reddy (13) re ported that acid ity de creased in guava fruit with in crease in stor age pe riod, this might be due to the rea son that poly eth yl ene pack ag ing ar rested the rip en ing pro cess by check ing tran spi ra tion and res pi ra tion thereby re tained higher level of acid ity. From the pres ent study, it can by con cluded that pear fruits packed in pa per moulded tray with shrink can be mar keted for 21 days with highly ac cept able qual ity at trib utes un der super mar ket con di tions (20-21ºC and 85-90% RH) . REF ER ENCES 1. Abeles F.B., Mor gan, P.W. and Saltveit, M.E. (1992). Eth yl ene in Plant Bi ol ogy. Ac a demic Press, New York 2. Amerine, M.A, Pangborn, R.M. and Roessler, E.B. (1965). Prin ci ples of Sen sory Eval u a tion of Food. Ac a demic Press, Lon don. p 5. 3. Annonymous (2011). FAO. http.//faostat.foo. org. 4. AOAC (1990). Of fi cial and Ten ta tive Meth ods of An a lyt i cal Chem ists, Wash ing ton DC, USA 14 th edi tion. 5. Ben, Yehoshua (1985). In di vid ual seal pack ag ing of fruits and veg e ta bles in plas tic films- a new postharvested tech nique. Hortic Sci., 94: 524-528. 6. Hardenburg R.E. (1971). Ef fect of in-pack age en vi ron ment on keep ing qual ity of fruits and veg e ta bles. Hort Sci., 6: 178. 7. Heaton, E.K., Dobson, J.W., Lane, R.P. and Beuchat, L.R. (1990). Eval u a tion of shrink wrap pack ag ing for main tain ing qual ity of ap ples. J. Fd Pro tec tion, 53 (7): 598-599. 8. Mahajan, B.V.C., Randhawa, J.S., Kaur, Harminder and Dhatt A.S. (2008). Ef fect of postharvest ap pli ca tion of cal cium ni trate and gibbrellic acid on the stor age life of plum. In dian J. Hor t. , 65 (1): 94-98 9. Nanda, S, Sudhakar, Rao, D.V. and Krishnamurthy, Shantha (2001). Ef fects of Shrink film wrap ping and stor age tem per a ture on the shelf life and qual ity of pome gran ate fruit cv. Ganesh. Postharvest Biol Technol., 22 (1): 61-69. 10. Pool, K.M., Weaver, R.J. and Kliewer, K.M. (1972). The ef fect of growth reg u la tors on the changes in fruit fruits of Thomp son seed less dur ing cold stor age. J. Amer Soc. Hort. Sci., 97: 67-70. 11. Salunkhe, D.K., Deshpade, P.B. and Do, J.R. (1968). Ef fects of ma tu rity and stor age on the phys i cal and bio chem i cal changes in peach and apri cot fruits. J. Hort. Sci., 43: 235-42. 12. Sonkar, R.K. and Ladaniya, M.S. (1998). Ef fect of tray over wrap ping by heat shrink able and stretch able films on Nagpur man da rin fruits. In dian Fd Packer, 52 (5): 22-26. 13. Venkatesha, M. and Reddy, T.V. (1994). Ex ten sion of stor age life of guava (Psidium guajava L.) fruits. In dian Fd. Packer, 48 (5): 5-10. 14. Wills, R.B.H, Cam bridge, P.A. and Scott, K.J. (1980). Use of flesh firm ness and other ob jec tive tests to de ter mine con sumer ac cept abil ity of de li cious ap ples. Aus tra lian, J. Exp. Agri. Anim. Husb., 20: 252-56 15. Zora, S., Janes, J., Tan, S.C., Subhadrabandhu, S. and Pichakum, A. (2002). Effects of different surfactants on calcium uptake and its effects on fruit ripening, quality and postharvest storage of mango under modified atmosphere packaging. Acta Hort. 509: 113-117. Effect of different packaging films on shelf life and quality of pear fruits under super market conditions 71 RE VIEW ON BI O LOG I CAL CON TROL OF SOIL BORNE FUNGI IN VEG E TA BLE CROPS Ramesh Singh* and N.S. Sachan¹ De part ment of Plant Pa thol ogy, T. D. (P.G.) Col lege, Jaunpur ¹Oil Seed Section , C.S.A. Univ. of Agri. & Tech., Kanpur *E-mail:
[email protected] ABSTRACT : Biological control involves the use of beneficial organism, their gens, and/ or products, such as metabolites, that reduce the negative effect of plant pathogen and promote positive response by the plant. Disease suppression, a medicated by bio-control agents, is the consequences of the interactions between the plant, pathogen and microbial community. Mycoparasitism, spatial and nutrient competition, antibiosis by enzymes and secondary metabolites and induction of plant defense system are typical bio-control action of these fungi. Faster metabolic rates, anti-microbial metabolites and physiological conformation are key factors which chiefly contributes to antagonism. V.A. Mycorrhizae play major role in biological control of plant diseases owing to their capabilities of amelioration crop yields by multiple role as bio-pesticides and plant growth promotion. Keywords : Soil borne dis eases, mycoparsitism, lysis, bac te ria, mycoplasma. Soil sup ports rich est num ber and kinds of mi cro or gan ism in ter act ing with each other and thus may mod i fi ca tion or al ter ation in soil con di tions greatly in flu ence the mi cro bial com mu nity and their ac tiv ity in soil eco sys tem. Soil physico- chem i cal and bi o log i cal fac tors in ter act to pro vide rap idly chang ing eco log i cal niches and mi cro bial com po nents fluc tu ate in re sponse to change in soil con di tion (Cook and Baker, 8). There are large ev i dences that ag ri cul tural prac tices of ten fa vour an tag o nis tic mi cro or gan ism (Cook and Baker, 8) and there fore, bi o log i cal con trol of plant patho gens could be pos si ble through ma nip u la tion of soil con di tion. Soil or ganic mat ter also has a pro found in flu ence on mi cro or gan ism in soil, par tic u larly those, in clud ing some patho gen, saprophytic and ob li gate plant par a sites. Dur ing eight ies sev eral bio-agents avail able in na ture have been tested against plant patho gen but Trichoderma and Gliocladium have gained max i mum suc cess and pop u lar ity. It is now well es tab lished that cer tain bio-agents have tre men dous po ten tial and can be ex ploited suc cess fully in mod ern ag ri cul ture for con trol of plant dis eases (Mukhopadhyay, 16). Re cently sev eral com mer cial prod ucts of Trichoderma like Antagon, Biocure, Bioderma, Dermapack, Trichofit and Trichosan in in dia and Binab-7, Azadderma, F-stop, Trichodermin, and Trichodex in abroad have ap peared in the mar ket (Joe, 10), which re veal that bioagents are be com ing pop u lar. The rec og nized type of an tag o nism are (i) Fungistasis or fail ure of propagule ger mi na tion be cause of in hi bi tion or com pe ti tion for nu tri ents; (ii) antibiosis or pro duc tion of toxic me tab o lites that re duce or pre vent ger mi na tion, in voke lysis or in hibit growth; (iii) Lysis dis so lu tion of mycelia or sur vival struc tures; (iv) In hi bi tion by com pe ti tion for nu tri ents, sub strates and space and (v) Mycoparasitism and pre da tion, the par a sitic or pred a tory de struc tion of patho gen by other mi cro or gan isms. Some prin ci ples or con cepts on which bi o log i cal con trol is based on : 1. Mi cro or gan isms oc cur in greater num bers and ac tiv ity around the plant that at some dis tance. 2. Soil borne patho gen in creases with re peated plant ing of sus cep ti ble crops and de creases when crop ro ta tions are used. 3. Most soil borne patho gen are re tarded or pre vented when high amount of or ganic ma te ri als Received : 30.8.2012 Accepted : 24.11.2012 HortFlora Research Spectrum, 2(1): 72-76 (Jan.-March 2013) ISSN : 2250-2823 are added in sick soil, due to in creased an tag o nism of the patho gens by mi cro or gan ism stim u lated by the amend ments. 4. Spores of fungi re main mostly or en tirely dor mant in most or all soil un less stim u lated to ger mi nate by an ex ter nal source of nu tri ents and en ergy. Mech a nisms and Pro cess of Bi o log i cal Con trol: As there are nu mer ous re ports and re views deal ing with var i ous as pect of bi o log i cal con trol (Agarwal, 2) we in tend to em pha size the role of non-patho genic fungi and VA mycorrhizae in en hanc ing the biocontrol ef fi ciency of myco- parasites in the in te grated biocontrol of soil borne fungi. Inspite of nu mer ous re ports on myco- parasitism and sup pres sive soils, biocontrol of soil borne fungi is not a prac ti cal re al ity and com mer cially fea si ble. Fail ure of biocontrol agents un der field con di tion is at trib uted mainly to its in abil ity to es tab lish and oc cupy the new eco log i cal niches to dis place the patho gen. Mycoparasites are ef fec tive, only at high rate of inoculum and col o nized ef fec tively in ster ile, fu mi gated or soil less mix in green house but not when ap plied to nat u ral soil. Sup pres sive soils : In duc tion of soil suppressiveness to soil-borne fungi may pro vide a long-term plant pro tec tion. The phe nom e non of dis ease sup pres sion in soils is wide spread and it may be nat u ral supperssiveness as so ci ated with soil phys i cal fac tors or it may be in duced by ag ri cul tural prac tices of mono cul ture of sus cep ti ble crop. The most no ta ble among the known sup pres sive soils are take-all de cline. (Cook and Baker, 8). The supperssiveness of soil to soil-borne fungi es pe cially Rhizoctonia solai and Pythium spp. has been of ten at trib uted to na tive or in tro duced Trichoderma spp. Suc ces sive mono cul ture of rad ishes gen er ated soil supperssiveness to Rhizotonia solani. En hanced T. harzianum propagule den sity was closely ac com pa nied by soil supperssiveness (Liu and Baker, 13). High propagule den sity of Trichoderma was found to be as so ci ated with nat u rally sup pres sive Co lom bian soils than the con duc tive soils due to acidic pH 5.1 which en hanced the prop a ga tion of fungi and Trichoderma in par tic u lar (Chung et al., 7). Mycoparasitism : Mycoparasitism is an act where one fun gus par a sit izes on an other. This term has been gen er ally used with hyperparasitism, di rect par a sit ism or in ter fun gus par a sit ism (Boosalis and Mankau, 4). The mycoparasitism in cludes dif fer ent kinds of in ter ac tion, viz., coil ing of hyphae, pen e tra tion, pro duc tion of haustoria and lysis of the hyphae. In the nar row sense mycoparasitism could be taken to in clude only di rect con tact of the mycoparasitic fun gus with the po ten tial host.From prac ti cal point of view, how ever, the pro duc tion of an tag o nis tic me tab o lites which pre cedes the phys i cal con tact nec es sary to in va sion of the my ce lium of the po ten tial host could rea son ably be con sid ered to con sti tute part of the es sen tial re ac tion which leads to overt phys i cal par a sit ism of the host. There are a num ber of ex am ples of fungi that par a sit ize plant patho gens (Lumsden, 14) of these only a few have been stud ied to any ex tent with the aim of bi o log i cal con trol. Trichoderma and Gliocladium spe cies prob a bly have been stud ied to the great est ex tent (Papavizas, 18). Other mycoparasites re ported to have some po ten tial for biocontrol are Chaetomium globosum, Conio- thyrium minitans, Laetisaria aravalia, Pythium nunn, Talaromyces flavus and Sporidesmium sclerotivorum (Ad ams, 1). Trichoderma hamatum hyperparasitic on Rhizoctonia solani pro tected pea and rad ish seeds from in fec tion when ap plied as seed dresser and in clu sion of chitin fur ther im proved con trol of seed ing dis eases in green house con di tion (Har man et al., 12), lsolates of T. knoingii and T. harzianum pro tected seed rots of pea in soil nat u rally in fested with the patho gen, Pythium spp. (Hadar et al., 11). Biological control of soil borne fungi in vegetable crops 73 74 Singh and Sachan Coniothyrium minitans is a po ten tial mycoparasite against Sclerotinia spp. Ap pli ca tion of C. minitans inoculum to soil have been re ported to re duce the sur vival of sclerotia of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Cael et al., 6). The abil ity of C. minitans to par a sit ize sclerotia of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum in side host plant root and stems as well as those on root sur face of in fected sun flower plants was dem on strated that up to 65% of sclerotia of S. trifoliorum were de stroyed in field soil by ap pli ca tion of pycnidal dust prep a ra tion of C. minitans (Turner and Tribe, 22). Lysis : Lysis is the com plete or po ten tial de struc tion of a cell by en zymes. Two types of lysis, viz., endolysis and exolysis have been dis tin guished. Endolysis or autolysis is the break down of the cy to plasm of a cell by the cell’s own en zymes fol low ing death, which may be caused by nu tri ent star va tion or by an ti bi ot ics or other tox ins. Endolysis usu ally does not in volve de struc tion of cell wall. Exolysis or heterolysis is the de struc tion of a cell by the en zymes of an other or gan ism. Typ i cally, exolysis is the de struc tion of the wall of an or gan ism by chitinases, cellulases etc. and these re sults in the death of the at tacked cell. In exolysis death is caused by the lysis, but in endolysis death is the cause of the cell’s own lysis. There could some times be over lap ping, if an or gan ism pro duces the cell wall de grad ing en zymes as well as an ti bi otic and tox ins to cause endo- and exolysis both and it is dif fi cult to know which pre cedes the other. Elad et al. (9) men tioned that T. hamatum was at tached to the host S. rolfsii or R. solani by hyphal coil, hooks or appressoria and caused lysis of host cells. Trichoderma hamatum caused lysis of Drechlera sorokinina my ce lium by tightly coil ing around the host patho gen. (Mandal, 15). An ti bi ot ics : The tox ins pro duced by an or gan ism kill ing an other or gan ism at very low con cen tra tion (less than10 ppm) are called an ti bi otic. These should be dis tin guished from other prod ucts of the at tack ing or gan isms such as hy dro gen ions which may change pH or eth a nol. These are re quired at much higher con cen tra tion to act. True an ti bi ot ics are the most stud ied mech a nisms of an tag o nism be tween mi cro or gan isms. It is pos si ble to iso late an ti bi otic pro duc ing or gan isms from leaves and other plant parts, but they are most com mon in soils. The an ti bi ot ics may have a sig nif i cant role in bi o log i cal con trol as these cause cell death. The first knowl edge of toxic me tab o lites pro duc tion by spe cies of Trichoderma and Gliocladium was largely expressed by Weindling (23) who showed the pro duc tion of an antifungal me tab o lite by Trichoderma lignorium, later stated be Gliocladium fimbriatum. The me tab o lite was named as gliotoxin. A sec ond fungistatic an ti bi otic viridin was shown to pro duced by Trichoderma viride (Brian and Mc-Gowan, 5). Trichodermin (from T. viride and T. polysporum) and gliovirin (from G. virens) are other an ti bi ot ics iso lated from these fungi. Bac te ria: Ba cil lus spe cies are the prom is ing biocontrol agents as they pro duce endo spores that are tol er ant to heat and des ic ca tion. Seed treat ment with B. subtilis suc cess fully con trolled dis eases in pea nut and on ion. Pseudommnas spe cies are more fa voured in biocontrol as they are ef fi cient root col o niz ers en hanc ing the yield con sid er ably in po tato, sugarbeet and rad ish. Ba cil lus subtilis, an tag o nism to Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, can be dem on strated by marked in hi bi tion zone which de velop in dual cul ture or by in hi bi tion of scle ro tial ger mi na tion (Singh et al., 20).When ap plied as soil amend ments, Ba cil lus subtilis sig nif i cantly re duced the de vel op ment of Sclerotinia blight of brin jal un der green house con di tion (Singh, 19). Siderophores : A par tic u lar form of nu tri ent com pe ti tion in volv ing iron has been pro posed as a mech a nism of bi o log i cal con trol. They can be com pe ti tion for fer ric ion by the pro duc tion of siderophores. These are low mo lec u lar weight, high af fin ity iron (III) chelators than trans port iron in the cells. Di rect cor re la tion was ob served be tween siderophore pro duc tion by var i ous flu o res cent pseudomonads and their in hi bi tion of chlamydospore ger mi na tion in soil. Dis ease was sup pressed more strongly by the highly flu o res cent sidrerophore pro duc ers than by other iso lates (Sneh et al., 21). Mycorrhizae : VA mycorrhizal fungi have the po ten tial to in crease plant growth and vig our un der a num ber of stress con di tions like nu tri ent defficiency and soil-borne fungi. Re cently sev eral work ers re viewed the ef fect of VA mycorrhizal fungi on root dis eases (Agarwal, 2) and mi cro bial in ter ac tion in the mycorhizosphere (Bagyaraj, 3). He fur ther sug gested screen ing sev eral spe cies or iso lates to se lect an ef fec tive iso late and to use sev eral mycorrhizal fungi to gether against var i ous cultivars of the host. Four ectomycorrhizal fungi were tested with six com mon root patho gens and found Suillus brevipes in hib it ing all the root patho gen. The ectomycorrhizal fun gus, Laccaria bicolor (Syn. Laccaria laccata) pro vided tem po rary or par tial pro tec tion against Fusarium oxysporum in fec tion in Douglas- fir un der con trolled and field con di tion (Natarajan and Govindasamy, 17). This mycorrhizal fun gus also pro tected roots of Pinus against Cylindrocarpon destructans, F. moniliforme and Rhizoctonia solani. Sev eral spe cies of Glomus are im pli cated in the re duc tion of root dis eases viz., G. fasciculatum con trol ling pea root rot caused by Aphanomyces euteiches; G. intraradices in the con trol of crown and root rot of to mato in cited by F. oxysporum f. sp. radicis-lycopersici while G. mosseae pro tected to mato plants against Erwinia caratovora. REF ER ENCES 1. Ad ams, P.B. (1990). The po ten tial of mycoparasites for bi o log i cal con trol of plant dis eases. Annu. Rev. Phytopathol., 28: 59-72. 2. Agarwal, G.P. (1991). Bi o log i cal plant pro tec tion- re cent de vel op ments, sec tional pres i den tial ad ders (Part II) at the 78 th Sci ence Con gress, ISCA, 20pp. 3. Bagyaraj, D.J. (1984). Bi o log i cal in ter ac tions with VAM fungi. P. 131-153 in VA Mycorrhizae C.L. Powell and D.J. Bagyaraj(eds.) CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. 234pp. 4. Boosalis,M.G. (1956). Ef fect of soil tem per a ture and green ma nure amend ment of un ster il ized oil on par a sit ism of Rhizoctonia solani by Penicilium vermiculatum and Trichoderma sp. Phytopathol., 46:473-478. 5. Brian, R.W. and Mc-Gowan, J.C. (1945). Viridin: A highly fungistatic sub stance pro duced by Trichoderma viride. Na ture, 156 : 144-145. 6. Cael, N., Penaud, A. and Decroos, Y. (2001). New el e ment in the blight against Sclerotinia on oil seed crops. A new bi o log i cal con trol fun gi cide stud ied in France.Cham pi gnon antagoniste C. minitans. Phytoma, 539 : 12-16. 7. Chung, Y.R., Hoitink, H.A.J., Dick, W.A. and Herr. L.J. (1988). Ef fects of or ganic mat ter de com po si tion level and cel lu lose amend ment on the inoculum po ten tial of Rhizoctonia solani in hard wood bark me dia. Phytopathol., 78:836-840. 8. Cook, R.J. and Baker, K.F. (1983). The na ture and Prac tice of Bi o log i cal Con trol of plant Patho gen. p. 539. Amer i can Phytopathological So ci ety, St. Paul, Min ne sota, U.S.A. 9. Elad, Y., Chet, I., Boyle, P. and Henis, Y. (1983). Par a sit ism of Trichoderma sp. on Rhizoctonia solani and Sclerotium rolfsii. Scan ning elec tron mi cros copy and fluorescens mi cros copy. Phytopathol., 73:85-86. 10. Joe, Y. (1998). Trichoderma, a po ten tial biofungicides. The Hindu. Feb ru ary, 12, p-24. 11. Hadar, Y. Har man G.E. and Tay lor, A.G. (1984). Eval u a tion of Trichoderma koningii and T. harzianum from New York soils for bi o log i cal con trol of seed rot caused by Pythium spp. Phytopathol., 74: 106-110. 12. Har man, G.E. Chet, I. and Baker, R. (1980). Biological control of soil borne fungi in vegetable crops 75 76 Singh and Sachan Trichoderma hamatum ef fects on seed and seed ling dis ease in duced in rad ish by Pythium spp. and Rhizoctonia solani. Phytopathology, 70: 1167-1172. 13. Liu, S. and Baker, R. (1980). Mech a nism of bi o log i cal con trol in soil sup pres sive to Rhizoctonia solani. Phytopathol., 70: 404-412. 14. Lumsden, R.D. (1981). Hyperparasitism for con trol of plant patho gens. In: CRC Hand book of Pest Man age ment in Ag ri cul ture, ed.D. Pimentel, 1:475-484.Boca Raon, FL. Crc Oress. 15. Mandal, S. (1995). Ef fect of some an tag o nists on Dreshlera sorokiniana, the causal agent of spot blotch of wheat. M.Sc. The sis, IARI, New Delhi, 65pp. 16. Mukhopadhyay, A.N. (1994). Bio-con trol of soil borne fun gal plant patho gen. Cur rent sta tus, fu ture pros pects and po ten tial lim i ta tion. In dian Phytopath., 47:119-126. 17. Natarajan, K. and Govindasamy, V. (1990). In: Cur rent trends in My co log i cal Re search B.L. Jalali and H.Chand (eds.) 98-99p. Proc. Nat. Conf. on Mycorhiza, HAU, Hissar. 18. Papavizas, G.C. (1985). Trichoderma and Gliocladium: Bi ol ogy, ecol ogy and po ten tial for biocontrol. Annu. Rev. Phytopathol., 23:23-54. 19. Singh, L.B. (2003). Management of Sclerotinia blight of brinjal. M.Sc. (Ag.) Thesis. T.D.P.G. College, Jaunpur (U.P.) 20. Singh, Ramesh; Udit Narain and Palat, Ram (2003). Eval u a tion of bio-agent against Sclerotinia stem rot of Ajowan. Ann. Pl. Protec. Sci., 11(2):386. 21. Sneh, B., Dupler, M., Elad, Y. and Baker, R. 1984. Clamydospore ger mi na tion of F. oxysporum f. sp. cucumerinum as af fected by flu o res cent and lytic bac te ria from Fusarium sup pres sive soil. Phytopathology, 74: 1115-1124. 22. Turner, G.J. and Tribe, H.T. (1975). Preliminary field plot trial on biological control of Sclerotinia trifoliorum by Coniothyrum minitans. Plant Pathol. 24: 109-113. 23. Weindling, R. (1932). Trichoderma lignorum as a parasite of other fungi. Phytopathol., 22: 837-845. EF FECT OF MICRO NUT RI ENTS AND PLANT GROWTH REG U LA TORS ON FRUIT ING OF LI TCHI Amit Dixit*, S.S. Shaw and Virendra Pal¹ De part ment of Hor ti cul ture, Col lege of Ag ri cul ture, Indira Gan dhi Krishi Vishwavidayalaya, Raipur ¹Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Bagpat (S.V.P. Univ. of Agri. & Tech., Meerut) *E-mail: amitdixit1872@ya hoo.com AB STRACT: The pres ent in ves ti ga tion was con ducted in the li tchi or chard of the Farm Area of R.M.D., Col lege of Ambikapur in the year 2007 to 2009 to as sess the ef fect of micro nut ri ents and growth reg u la tors on fruit ing in Li tchi cv. Ambika Li tchi -1. The ap pli ca tion of bo rax 0.4 per cent re sulted in max i mum fruit set (41.20%), fruit re ten tion (22.60%), size of fruit (4.10 cm × 3.10 cm), num ber of fruits per tree (4625), weight of in di vid ual fruit (21.05 g) and fruit yield (92.85 kg/tree). GA 3 10 ppm also was found ef fec tive treat ment to in crease fruit set, fruit re ten tion and size of fruit. GA 3 20 ppm pro duce max i mum num ber of fruit/tree and yield. In ter ac tion be tween bo rax 0.4 per cent and GA 3 20 ppm ex hib ited in max i mum re ten tion of fruit and fruit yield. Max i mum fruit crack ing of 13 per cent was ob served in bo rax 0.4 per cent. Hor ti cul tural prod ucts in gen eral and fruits in par tic u lar are pre mier com mod i ties of ex port. Amongst fruit crops, li tchi (Li tchi chinensis Sonn.) oc cu pies prime place of im por tance. So far as ex port of ag ri cul tural prod ucts is con cerned by vir tue of its de li cious taste, ex cel lent fla vour, pleas ant fra grance, at trac tive ap pear ance and high nu tri tional val ues, it has pop u lar ity in many parts of the world open ing up new vis tas for ac cel er ated ex port op por tu nity. How ever, to stay in global mar ket which is turn ing more com pet i tive day by day, it is of par a mount im por tant to main tain high stan dard in the qual i ties of fruits pro duced. Be sides im part ing fas ci nat ing ap pear ance to them and pro vid ing lon ger shelf life. From eco nomic point of view, it is equally im por tant to get a good har vest, be sides hav ing im prove ment in qual ity as pect. Zinc plays a vi tal role in the met a bolic ac tiv i ties of plant. The prin ci ple func tions of zinc in plant are as a metal ac ti va tor of en zymes like dehydrogenase (pyridine nu cle o tide, glu cose-6 phosphodiesterase, car bonic anhydrase etc.). It is in volved in the syn the sis of tryptophane, a pre cur sor of IAA, it is as so ci ated with wa ter up take and wa ter re ten tion in plant bod ies (Noggle and Fritz, 4). Bo ron, on the other hand is con sid ered to be nec es sary for hor mone me tab o lism, photosynthetic ac tiv i ties, cel lu lar dif fer en ti a tion and wa ter ab sorp tion in plant parts. It is also in volved in re pro duc tion, ger mi na tion of pol len tube and fer til iza tion. In case of bo ron de fi ciency, flow ers are pro duced least and more ster ile, fruits are de formed and ren der them selves com mer cially use less (Yawalkar et al., 8) The ef fect of micro nut ri ents in aug ment ing li tchi yield and qual ity is a fore gone con clu sion, but the ben e fi cial ef fect of micro nut ri ents in com bi na tion with plant growth reg u la tors was yet to be fully ex plored. This paves and path for the cur rent ex per i men ta tion. MA TE RI ALS AND METH ODS The ex per i ment was con ducted in Hor ti cul tural farm of Raj Mohini Devi Col lege of Ag ri cul ture and Re search Sta tion, Ambikapur dur ing 2007 to 09. The cli mate of the re gion is sub trop i cal with an an nual rainfall of 1300-1400 mm. The soil of the ex per i ment plot was me dium loam of av er age fer til ity and well drained. Two micro nut ri ents (ZnSO 4 and bo rax) and two plant growth reg u la tors (2, 4-D and GA 3 ) each at their two lower and higher lev els ZnSO 4 at 0.4 per cent (M 1 ) and 0.8 per cent (M 2 ); Bo rax at 0.2 per cent (M 3 ) and 0.4 per cent (M 4 ) and 2,4-D at 10 ppm (P 1 ) and 20 ppm (P 2 ) and GA 3 also at 10 ppm (P 3 ) and 20 ppm (P 4 ) spray were tested in Ran dom ized Block De sign (Fac to rial) rep li cated thrice. One con trol Received : 15.12.2012 Accepted : 13.1.2013 HortFlora Research Spectrum, 2(1): 77-80 (Jan.-March 2013) ISSN : 2250-2823 78 Dixit et al. plot was also there in each rep li ca tion for mak ing ef fec tive com par i son. Macronutrients were sprayed on new growth flushes be fore ini ti a tion of in flo res cence, whereas, PGRs were sprayed af ter com ple tion of fruit set ting. The li tchi va ri ety used for ex per i men ta tion was Ambika Li tchi-1. The li tchi trees were 7.62 m apart in both di rec tion i.e., be tween the rows and within rows hav ing an av er age height of 7.1 m. The fer til ity sta tus as en vis aged through the sta tus of avail able N (294.8 kg), P 2 O 5 (23.8 kg) and K 2 O (203.5 kg) was in the me dium range hav ing soil re ac tion in the acidic range pH 6.5. RE SULTS AND DIS CUS SION The micro nut ri ents in gen eral were ef fec tive in in creas ing fruit set ting sig nif i cantly in com pres sion to con trol (Ta ble 1). Ex cept 0.8% ZnSO 4 (M 2 ) and 20 ppm 2,4-D (P 2 ), all the con cen tra tions of ZnSO 4 and bo rax sig nif i cantly in creased fruit set ting in li tchi. Amongst the micro nut ri ents, Bo rax 0.4% (M 4 ) ex hib ited the high est fruit set ting (41.2%), but had sta tis ti cal par ity with 0.4% ZnSO 4 (M 1 ) and 0.2% bo rax (M 3 ). All the four treat ments per tain ing to PGR ap pli ca tion showed sta tis ti cal equal ity amongst them selves in in creas ing fruit set ting in li tchi. The results are in consonance with Mishra et al. (3). Fruit re ten tion also in creased due to micro nut ri ents and PGR and fruit crack ing re duced sig nif i cantly as com pared to con trol. Amongst the micro nut ri ents, bo rax 0.4% was the most ef fec tive in in creas ing fruit re ten tion and re duc ing fruit crack ing. Amongst the PGRs, GA 3 20 ppm had sig nif i cantly the least fruit crack ing. Fruit re ten tion was also the max i mum in 20 ppm GA 3 , but it was sta tis ti cally alike to those un der 10 ppm 2,4-D and 10 ppm, GA 3 . It was only 20 ppm 2,4-D which ex hib ited lower fruit re ten tion. Ac cord ing to the main ef fect of micro nut ri ents and plant growth reg u la tors 0.4% bo rax (M 4 ) had sig nif i cantly the max i mum fruit re ten tion per cent age. How ever, as per M x P in ter ac tion (Ta ble 2), the 0.4% bo rax (M 4 ) was sig nif i cantly su pe rior to all other micronutrient and their vary ing strengths only when 20 ppm GA 3 was in com par i son un der all other sit u a tions of PGR ap pli ca tion it had sta tis ti cal par ity with 0.4% ZnSO 4 and 0.2% bo rax, if 10 ppm 2,4-D was ap plied. Like wise it was at par with 0.4% ZnSO 4 and 0.2% bo rax, if 10 ppm 2,4-D sprayed. Sim i larly, when 10 ppm GA 3 was ap plied, 0.4% bo rax was com pa ra ble with 0.2% bo rax and 0.4% ZnSO 4 . Length and di am e ter of fruit were the max i mum un der 0.4% bo rax ap pli ca tion. How ever, di am e ter of fruit un der 0.4% ZnSO 4 was also com pa ra ble. The ben e fi cial ef fect of micro nut ri ents and PGRs can be ex plained on the ba sis of their role in plant phys i ol ogy and plant me tab o lism. The mech a nism of ac tion of zinc may be through auxin stim u la tion. Zinc is in volved in syn the sis of tryptophan, a pre cur sor of NAA. A num ber of work ers have been re ported that heavy drop at early stage was due to the for ma tion of abscission layer. The cell at or near the abscission zone gets re duced and ei ther dis in te grates or dis solves re sult ing sep a ra tion of fruit from the stock. The for ma tion of abscission layer is as so ci ated with pres ence of weak auxin gra di ents in fruit. The in crease in fruit set and fruit re ten tion due to bo rax ap pli ca tion may be as cribed to its ben e fi cial ef fect on re pro duc tion, ger mi na tion of pol len tube and fer til iza tion pro cess. 2, 4-D it self func tions as an auxin for mer in its lower con cen tra tion. Thus, all these chem i cals ul ti mately help in cell di vi sion, cell elon ga tion, cell en large ment and in re duc tion of abscission layer (Salis bury and Ross, 6). Com par a tively less ef fec tive ness of higher con cen tra tion of zinc may be at trib uted to it scorch ing ef fect on the ju ve nile in flo res cence. Sim i larly, sub dued im pact of higher con cen tra tion of 2, 4-D (20 ppm) may be due to show ing up of in her ent her bi cidal ef fect of the chem i cal for which it is pri mar ily known (Yawalkar et al., 8). Up take of wa ter and solutes are gov erned by the pres ence of zinc and other micro nut ri ents. In case of en hanced wa ter up take, sol utes ac cu mu lated in the fruits and min i mize the pres sure on the skin re sult ing in less crack ing. Auxin sim u la tion both due to 2,4-D and GA 3 might be the rea son for the ac cu mu la tion of build ing block at Effect of micronutrients and plant growth regulators on fruiting of Litchi 79 Ta ble 1: Ef fect of micro nut ri ents and PGRs on fruit set, fruit re ten tion, crack ing and size of li tchi fruit. Treatments Fruit set (%) Fruit retention (%) Cracking of fruit (%) Length of fruit (cm) Diameter of fruit (cm) M 1 -ZnSO 4 (0.4%) 40.80 20.40 14.10 3.80 2.90 M 2 -ZnSO 4 (0.8%) 38.10 18.30 13.80 3.70 2.80 M 3 -Borax (0.2%) 40.10 20.80 13.20 3.60 2.85 M 4 -Borax (0.4%) 41.20 22.60 13.00 4.10 3.10 C.D. (P=0.05) 1.3 .610 0.36 0.08 0.076 P 1 2, 4-D (10 ppm) 41.38 20.10 13.90 3.90 2.80 P 2 2,4-D (20 ppm) 40.10 19.10 13.10 3.60 2.65 P 3 GA 3 (10 ppm) 41.10 21.10 12.90 3.65 2.85 P 4 GA 4 (20 ppm) 40.80 21.40 12.10 3.60 3.00 C.D. (P=0.05) 0.682 0.320 0.067 0.078 0.084 Table 2: Fruit retention percentage as influenced by micronutrients ´ PGRs interaction. Plant Growth Regulators 2,4-D 10 ppm (P 1 ) 2,4-D 20 ppm (P 2 ) GA 3 10 ppm (P 3 ) GA 3 20 ppm (P 4 ) Mean M 1 -ZnSO 4 (0.4%) 23.10 22.23 22.85 23.85 23.22 M 2 -ZnSO 4 (0.8%) 21.20 20.10 21.85 20.10 20.81 M 3 -Borax (0.2%) 22.85 21.25 22.65 22.10 22.81 M 4 -Borax (0.4%) 23.15 21.85 22.65 23.20 22.71 Mean 22.57 21.35 22.5 22.31 C.D. (P=0.05) M × P 1.25 Ta ble 3: Ef fect of micro nut ri ents and PGRs on yield pa ram e ters li tchi. Treatments No. of fruits per tree Weight of individual fruit (g) Fruit yield (kg/tree) M 1 -ZnSO 4 (0.4%) 4524 20.80 90.15 M 2 -ZnSO 4 (0.8%) 4415 18.10 80.25 M 3 -Borax (0.2%) 4585 20.95 90.25 M 4 Borax (0.4%) 4625 21.05 92.85 C.D. (P=0.05) 260.15 0.76 4.65 P 1 -2,4-D (10 ppm) 4605 20.70 90.15 P 2 -2,4-D (20 ppm) 4325 19.10 82.25 P 3 -GA 3 (10 ppm) 4485 20.85 91.25 P 4 GA 4 (20 ppm) 4685 20.75 92.18 C.D. (P=0.05) 290.25 1.275 6.25 Ta ble 4: In ter ac tive ef fect of micro nut ri ents and PGRs on fruit yield per tree of li tchi. PGRs Micronutrients 2,4-D 10 ppm (P 1 ) 2,4-D 20 ppm (P 2 ) GA 3 10 ppm (P 3 ) GA 3 20 ppm (P 4 ) Mean M 1 ZnSO 4 (0.4%) 90.25 85.15 88.15 92.15 88.92 M 2 ZnSO 4 (0.8%) 80.85 76.15 80.10 76.15 78.31 M 3 Borax (0.2%) 91.25 80.15 89.15 90.25 87.70 M 4 Borax (0.4%) 92.15 88.15 89.85 94.15 91.08 Mean 88.62 82.40 86.81 88.17 C.D. (P=0.05) 10.32 80 Dixit et al. faster rate and better ex e cu tion of source-sink re la tion reg is ter ing higher fruit set ting, re ten tion and less crack ing (Kumar et al, 2). Application of borax @ 0.4% (M 4 ) was instrumental in formation of maximum fruits per tree, maximum weight of individual fruit which and fruit weight per tree (Table 3). However, it had statistical equality with 0.4% ZnSO 4 application. 0.2% borax (M 3 ) was also comparable in case of weight of individual fruit. 0.8% ZnSO 4 was the least effective. Amongst the PGRSs, 10 ppm GA 3 and 20 ppm GA 3 fared equally well so far as number of fruits per tree, weight of individual fruit and weight of fruit per tree was concerned. 20 ppm 2,4-D appeared to be the least effective. The micronutrients and PGRs as such were significantly superior to the control confirming to the reports of Mishra et al. (3). However, according to M´ P interaction, the result was more complex. If 0.4% borax or 0.4% ZnSO 4 were sprayed the maximum fruit yield was under 20 ppm GA 3 . If 0.2% borax was sprayed, the highest fruit yield was under 10 ppm GA 3 and if 0.8% ZnSO 4 was sprayed, the maximum fruit yield was under 10 ppm GA 3 . The results of the present investigation get support in the works of Brahmachari and Kumar (1), Kumar et al, (2), Raina et al. (5) and Sharma et al. (7). REF ER ENCES 1. Brahmachari, V.S. and Kumar, Rajesh (1997). Ef fect of fo liar spray of min eral nu tri ents on fruit set re ten tion and crack ing of li tchi (Li tchi chinensis Sonn:) fruit. Haryana J. Hortic. Sci., 26 (3-4): 177-180. 2. Kumar, M., Kumar, R. and Singh, R.P. (2009). Effect of micronutrients and plant growth regulators on fruiting of litchi. Intern. J. Agric. Sci., 5 (2): 521-524. 3. Mishra, D.S., Kumar, P. and Kumar, R. (2012). Effect of GA 3 and BA on fruit weight, quality and ripening of ‘Rose Scented’ litchi. HortFlora Res. Spectrum, 1 (1) : 80-82. 4. Noggle, G.R. and Fritz, G.T. (1980). In tro duc tory Plant Phys i ol ogy, Prentice Hall of In dia Pvt. Ltd. Pub li ca tion, New Delhi. 5. Raina, B.L., Bhatt, S.K. and Muthoo, A.K. (2001). Ef fect of fo liar spray of NAA and 2,4-D on yield and qual ity of li tchi (Li tchi chinensis Sonn.) cv. Dehradun. Ad v. in Plant Sci., 14 (2): 385-389. 6. Salisburry, F.D. and Ross, C. (1969). Plant Physilogy (ed.) 1969 Wardworth Pub lish ing com pany Inc. Belmont, Cal i for nia. 7. Sharma, P., Sharma, R.M., Singh, A.K. and Tiku, A.K. (2005). Ef fect of plant bioregulators and micro nut ri ents on tree pro duc tiv ity, fruit crack ing and aril pro por tion of li tchi (Li tchi chinensis Sonn.) cv. Dehradun. Haryana J. Hortic. Sci., 34 (3-4): 220-221. 8. Yawalkar, K.S., Agarwal, J.P. and Bokde, S. (1992). Ma nures and Fer til iz ers, Sev enth edi tion. Agri. Hor ti cul tural Pub lish ing House, 52, Bajaj nagar, Nagpur. Re search Note : EF FECT OF IBA AND NAA CON CEN TRA TIONS ON ROOT ING IN STEM CUT TINGS OF NIGHT QUEEN (Ces trum nocturnum L) UN DER SUB-TROP I CAL VAL LEY CON DI TIONS K.K. Singh*, V. Rawat, J. M. S. Rawat, Y. K. Tomar and Prabhat Kumar De part ment of Hor ti cul ture, Chauras Cam pus, HNB Garhwal Uni ver sity, Srinagar (Garhwal) 246174, Uttarakhand, In dia *E-mail:
[email protected] AB STRACT: The ex per i ment was car ried out in sim ple ran dom ized block de sign the dif fer ent length stem cut tings of Ces trum nocturnum were treated with IBA and NAA so lu tions at 100, 200 and 300 mg L -1 by soak ing method. Among all the treat ments, num ber of sprouted cut tings and root ing per cent (76.53), length of the roots/cut ting (23.76 cm), fresh weight (6.06 g) and dry weight (1.33 g) of roots were higher in IBA 100 mg L -1 . While the max i mum length of sprout/cut ting (190.00 cm) was in IBA 300 mg L -1 and high est num ber of roots/cut ting (91.00) was re corded in NAA 300 mg L -1 treat ment. Keywords: Ces trum nocturnum, stem cut ting, IBA, NAA, root ing per cent age. Ces trum nocturnum (Night Jas mine or Night Queen or Rat Ki Rani) na tive of trop i cal Amer ica and West In dies is a shrub of fam ily Solanaceae (Night shade fam ily). It is a pop u lar land scape plant in warm cli mate, for a mixed bor der, mid row plan ta tion or as a back ground. It is also used as a free stand ing spec i men. This shrub is at trac tive and un pre tend ing and widely planted for its noc tur nal fra grance. No fra grant gar den should be with out a Ces trum. It is an un dis puted cham pion of fra grance at higher ground. The white flow ers are not par tially showy but on a warm, hu mid sum mer night as a plant in full bloom will pump out its rich, slightly musky aroma to a dis tance of 200 fit or more. Bloom ing be ing in the late spring and con tinue through out the sum mer. C. nocturnum is com monly cul ti vated in many coun tries as an or na men tal plant due to its fra grant flow ers that bloom at night (Tharman et al., 13 and Vander, 15). It pro duces small white ber ries about 8-10 mm long, with 1-3 seeds ca pa ble of be ing dis persed by birds (Tharman et al., 13), though it can also be prop a gated by asex ual means from cut roots or buds from creep ing roots. Al though it is eas ily prop a gated by cut tings but early root ing with suf fi cient num ber amount hav ing more chances of sur vival af ter trans plant ing are still needed by gar den ers. Tak ing above con cept this ex per i ment was taken and con ducted. This in ves ti ga tion was con ducted at the Hor ti cul tural Re search Cen tre of HNB Garhwal Uni ver sity, Srinagar (Garhwal), Uttarakhand, In dia. The ex per i men tal ma te ri als, con sisted of 15 cm long hard wood stem cut tings of C. nocturnum, were col lected from 3 year old plants. While pre par ing the cut tings, a slanting cut in each cut ting was given on dis tal end and smooth sharp cut was given at lower (proximal) end just be low the lower node. The ex per i ment was rep li cated thrice with 10 cut tings in each treat ment. A to tal 210 cut tings were tested. The cut tings were treated with IBA and NAA so lu tions at 100, 200 and 300 mg L -1 by soak ing method for 24 hrs. The cut tings were planted in 1 kg ca pac ity per fo rated white poly thene bags con tain ing soil, sand and FYM mix ture in 1:1:1 (v/v) ra tio and kept in open con di tion for root ing. Experiment was laid out in randomizzed block design with three replications. The num ber of sprouted cut tings, num ber of sprouts per cut ting, length of sprout per cut ting, num ber of pri mary roots per cut ting, length of root per cut ting and fresh and dry weight of roots were re corded af ter three months. The data re corded were sub jected to Received : 28.12.2012 Accepted : 24.1.2013 HortFlora Research Spectrum, 2(1): 81-83 (Jan.-March 2013) ISSN : 2250-2823 82 Singh et al. sta tis ti cal anal y sis for least sig nif i cant dif fer ence as de scribed by Snedecor and Cochran (11). A pe rusal of Ta ble 1 shows that the ef fect of dif fer ent con cen tra tions of IBA and NAA sig nif i cantly af fected the var i ous growth char ac ters of cut tings in C. nocturnum. The max i mum (76.53) per cent ages of sprouted and rooted cut tings were re corded in IBA 100 mg L -1 treat ment. The sprout ing and root ing per cent age dras ti cally re duced (43.27%) in IBA 300 mg L -1 treat ment. Data fur ther re vealed that the sprout ing per cent age con tin ued to de crease (29.17%) by NAA ap pli ca tion from 100 mg L -1 up to 300 mg L -1 . The min i mum per cent age of cut tings (22.23%) was sprouted and rooted in con trol set (Ta ble 1). These re sults are in line with the find ings of Rauch and Yamakawa (4) in re spect to cut tings sprouted in night queen. The promotive ef fect of IBA on root ing has also been doc u mented by (Thimmpappa and Bhattacharjee, 14) in ge ra nium and Sarasvathy et al. (6) in Gymnema sylvestre. Auxins nat u rally oc cur ring or ex og e nously ap plied are re quired for ini ti a tion of ad ven ti tious roots on stems Thimmappa and Bhattacharjee (14). It ap pears prob a ble that the suc cess of IBA is due to its low auxin ac tiv ity and its slow deg ra da tion by auxin de stroy ing en zyme. Leopold (3) sug gested that IBA is quite a strong auxin, while NAA is readily de stroyed. The max i mum num ber of sprouts/cut ting (22.20) were re corded in NAA 200 mg L -1 con cen tra tion. How ever in case of IBA, the ef fect on num ber of sprouts/cut ting re mained con stant. These find ing are sim i lar to Gupta et al. (2) who re ported that num ber of sprouts/cut ting was high est in NAA treat ments. The max i mum length of sprout/cut ting was re corded in 300 mg L -1 (190.00 cm) con cen tra tion of IBA fol lowed by 200 mg L -1 (169.33). While, NAA ap pli ca tion re sulted de crease in length of sprouts with a min i mum length of sprout/cut ting (Ta ble 1). These find ings are sim i lar to Singh (9) in Bou gain vil lea in re spect av er age length of sprout per cut ting. The num ber of leaves/cut ting was re corded max i mum (56.66) in 300 mg L -1 con cen tra tion of IBA. The min i mum num ber of leaves/cut ting (44.43) was re corded in con trol. These find ings are in consonance with Singh (10) in re spect to num ber of leaves per cut ting in jas mine (Jasminum sambac). In crease in leaf num ber may be due to their sig nif i cant ef fect on in duc ing vig or ous root ing sys tem by growth reg u la tors thus en abling the cut tings to ab sorb more nu tri ents thereby pro duc ing more leaves as re ported by Stancato et al. (12). The high est num ber of roots/cut ting (91.00) was re corded in 300 mg L -1 con cen tra tion of NAA. The low est num ber of roots/cut ting (29.00) was re corded in con trol treat ment (Ta ble 1). These find ings are sim i lar to Reddy et al. (5) in re spect to num ber of roots. The max i mum length of roots/cut ting (23.76 cm) was re corded in 100 mg L -1 con cen tra tion of IBA and the min i mum length of roots/cut ting (9.66 cm) was re corded in con trol Ta ble 1: Ef fect of IBA and NAA on veg e ta tive prop a ga tion through stem cut ting of Ces trum nocturnum. Treatment Sprouted cuttings Rooting per cent Number of sprouts/ cutting Length of sprout/ cutting (cm) Number of leaves/ cutting Number of primary roots/ cutting Length of root/ cutting (cm) Fresh weight of roots/ cutting (g) Dry weight of roots/ cutting (g) 100 mg L -1 IBA 76.53 76.53 22.20 136.33 53.33 33.33 23.76 6.06 1.33 200 mg L -1 IBA 53.28 53.28 15.53 169.33 45.53 51.00 19.83 6.04 1.27 300 mg L -1 IBA 43.41 43.41 15.53 190.00 56.66 46.00 22.00 3.70 0.92 100 mg L -1 NAA 60.00 60.00 15.53 127.33 47.76 83.66 18.00 3.52 0.90 200 mg L -1 NAA 46.53 46.53 15.53 125.33 50.00 82.00 22.00 6.03 1.15 300 mgL -1 NAA 42.50 42.50 12.20 102.30 50.00 91.00 19.33 4.27 0.95 Control 22.23 22.23 15.53 114.33 44.43 29.00 9.66 1.59 0.26 C.D. (P=0.05) 9.16 9.16 1.64 16.95 48.67 13.99 17.98 0.92 0.86 (Ta ble 1) confirming to results of Singh et al. (8) in long pep per with re spect to length of roots/cut ting. The max i mum fresh weight (6.06 g) of root/cut ting was re corded in 100 mg L -1 concentration of IBA and the min i mum weight (1.59 g) of fresh root/cut ting was re corded in con trol. Sim i larly, the max i mum dry weight (1.33 g) of roots/cut ting was re corded in 100 mg L -1 con cen tra tion of IBA and the min i mum dry weight of roots/cut ting (0.26 g) was re corded in con trol (Ta ble 1). These find ings are agreed with the find ings of Singh et al. (8) in long pep per. Reddy et al. (5) in Bou gain vil lea, Singh (10) in Bou gain vil lea peruviana and Awad et al. (1) in Bouganvillea glabra with re spect to av er age dry weight of roots/cut ting in night queen. REF ER ENCES 1. Awad, A.E., Dawh. A.K., Attya, M.A. (1988). Cut ting thick ness and auxin af fect ing the root ing and con se quently the growth and flow er ing of Bouganvillea glabra L. Acta Hort., 226(11): 445-454. 2. Gupta, V.M., Banerji, B.K. and Dutta, S.K. (2002). Ef fect of auxin on the root ing and sprout ing be hav iour of stem cut tings of bou gain vil lea cv. Los Banos Variegata Sil ver-Mar gin un der mist. Haryana J. Agri. Sci., 31(1-2): 42-44. 3. Leopold, A.C. (1995). Auxins and plant growth sub stances. Barkeley and Loss An gels. Univ. Cal i for nia Press, Cal i for nia pp372-377. 4. Rauch, F.D. and Yamakawa, R.M. (1980). Ef fect of auxin on root ing of Ixora acuminata. Hort Sci., 15(1): 97p. 5. Reddy, B.S., Angadi, M.S., Murgod, M.I. and Praveen, J. (2003). In flu ence of cut ting and growth reg u la tors on the root ing po ten ti al ity at Bou gain vil lea un der mist house. Haryana J. Hortic. Sci., 31(3-4): 205-206. 6. Sarasvathy, S., Azhkiamanavalan, R.S. and Vadivel, E. (2001). Ef fect of IBA on root ing of cut ting in gymneme (Gymnema sylvestre R Br). South In dian Hort., 8: 50-52. 7. Singh, A.K. (2001). Ef fect of wood type and root pro mot ing chem i cal on root ing of Bou gain vil lea peruviana L. Adv. Hort., For estry, 8: 179-184. 8. Singh, A.K., Singh, R., Millat, A.K., Singh, Y.P. and Jauhari, S. (2003). Ef fect of plant growth reg u la tors in sur vival, root ing and growth char ac ters in long pep per (Piper longum L.). Prog. Hort., 35(2): 208-211. 9. Singh, S..P (1993). Ef fect of auxins and plant ing time on car bo hy drate and ni tro gen fac tors in semi- hard wood cut tings of bou gain vil lea cv. ‘Thimma’ un der in ter mit tent mist. Adv. Hort. For estry, 3: 15-163. 10. Singh, A.K. (2001). Ef fect of auxin on root ing and sur vival of jas mine (Jasminum sambac) stem cut tings. Prog. Hort., 33(2): 174-177. 11. Snedecor, G.W. and Cochran, W.G. (1968). Sta tis ti cal Meth ods. Ox ford and IBH Pub. CO. Kolkata. 469p. 12. Stancato, G.C., Aguiar, F.F.A., Kanashiro. S. and Tavares, A.R. (2003). Rhipsali grandiflora Haw. Prop a ga tion by stem cut tings. Scientia Agricola, 56: 185-190. 13. Tharman, R.R., Fosberg, F.R. Manner, H.J. and Hassall, D.C. (1994). The flora of Nauru. Smith so nian In sti tu tion, Wash ing ton. Atoll Re search Bul le tin, 392: 1-223. 14. Thimmappa, D.K. and Bhattacharjee, S.K. (1950). Stan dard iza tion of prop a ga tion of scented ge ra nium from stem cut tings. In dian Per fumer, 31(1): 56-60. 15. Vander, Velde Nancy (2003). The vascular plants of Majuro Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands. Smithsonian Institution, Washington. Atoll Research Bulletin, 503: 1-141. Effect of IBA and NAA concentrations on rooting in stem cuttings of night queen 83 Re search Note : PER FOR MANCE OF CAB BAGE HY BRIDS UN DER RAINFED MID-HILL CON DI TIONS OF UTTARAKHAND Sanjay Pathak, Chandan Kumar¹*, S.P. Uniyal and Lalit Bhatt De part ment of Veg e ta ble Sci ence, G.B. Pant Uni ver sity of Agri. & Tech., Pantnagar, Uttarakhand ¹De part ment of Hor ti cul ture, In sti tute of Agricultural Sci ences, BHU, Varanasi-221 005 *E-mail:
[email protected] AB STRACT: The pooled data in di cated con sid er able vari a tion for veg e ta tive char ac ters, amongst which the max i mum leaf area (1022.71 cm 2 ) was ob served in Varun, while the hy brid T -50 top ranked with re spect to num ber of wrap per leaves (14.98) and plant spread (68.56 cm). Golden Acre, an open pol li nated check va ri ety, took min i mum num ber of days to ma tu rity (44 days from trans plant ing). Best qual ity and yield pa ram e ters viz., the max i mum ascor bic acid con tent (139.53 mg/100 g) and head size (515.05 cm 2 ) were re corded in Blue Di a mond and NBH-Arun, re spec tively, whereas, T-50 mea sured the max i mum head weight (2.106 Kg) and yield (801.19 q/ha). Keywords: Per for mance, cab bage, hy brids, net profit. Among the Cole crops, cab bage (Bras sica oleracea var. capitata L., 2n = 2x = 18) is grown in more than ninety coun tries through out the world and con sumed glob ally (Singh et al., 8). It is a rich source of pro tein com pris ing all es sen tial amino ac ids, es pe cially sul phur con tain ing amino ac ids, min er als such as cal cium, iron, mag ne sium, so dium, po tas sium, phos pho rus and an ti ox i dants, which are re ported to have anti-car ci no genic prop er ties (Singh et al., 9). Al though, in de vel oped coun tries more than 90 per cent cab bage area is un der hy brids, while in In dia hy brids are con fined to only 30 per cent of cab bage grown area. In Uttarakhand mid-hills, it is grown from April to No vem ber dur ing the time its pro duc tion is not pos si ble un der the agro-cli ma tic con di tion of plains, as a re sult the cab bage grow ers in hilly ar eas fetch pre mium prices and im mense po ten tial in max i miz ing the profit and im prov ing the socio-eco nomic sta tus of veg e ta ble grow ers. The cab bage cultivars show great vari a tion in re spect of shape, size and col our of the leaves as well as tex ture of head and be have dif fer ently un der dif fer ent agro-cli ma tic re gion. The hill farm ers are grow ing the va ri et ies / hy brids rec om mended for the ir ri gated con di tion of north ern plains and these per form poorly dur ing the sum mer-rainy sea son (off-sea son) un der the dif fer ent altitudic zone of hills. There fore, in or der to max i mize cab bage yield in this region it has be come im per a tive to se lect the suit able va ri et ies and work out cul tural prac tices. There fore, it is the needed to eval u ate the yield per for mance of some of the va ri et ies of cab bage es pe cially hy brids, un der the agro-cli ma tic con di tion of Uttarakhand to find out the best va ri ety / hy brid for com mer cial cul ti va tion at farm ers field in or der to max i mize the profit. The experiment was under taken for two consecutive years 2009 and 2010 to evaluate performance of ten cabbage hybrids/varieties under rainfed mid hill conditions of Uttarakhand. The site of experimentation was Research farm of Department of Vegetable Science. G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Hill Campus, Ranichauri, Uttarakhand. The ex per i men tal ma te ri als com prised of 9 cab bage hy brids viz., FM-Super, Suttind Manas, T-50, T-621, Green Hero, Varun, NBH-Arun, In dica, and Blue Di a mond were procured from dif fer ent lead ing seed com pa nies tested with the avail able pop u lar va ri ety of the re gion i.e. Golden Acre in a Ran dom ized Com plete Block De sign rep li cated thrice. About one month old seed lings Received : 17.10.2012 Accepted : 24.11.2012 HortFlora Research Spectrum, 2(1): 84-86 (Jan.-March 2013) ISSN : 2250-2823 were trans planted on 8 th July 2009 and 3 rd July 2010 (1 st and 2 nd year, re spec tively) in a plot size of 3 x 2 m 2 at a spac ing of 50×50 cm. Dur ing trans plant ing FYM and N: P 2 O 5 : K 2 O @ 20 t/ha and 120:75: 60 kg/ha, re spec tively, were ap plied uni formly dur ing both years. Data were re corded for leaf area (cm 2 ), num ber of non-wrap per leaves, plant spread (cm), head size (cm 2 ), net head weight (Kg), plant mor tal ity (%), days to mar ket able ma tu rity, head com pact ness (g/cm 3 ), ascor bic acid con tent (mg/100 g) and yield of mar ket able head (q/ha) and average data were analysed statistically. The data (Ta ble 1) re vealed that the cab bage hy brids se lected for the study in both years dif fered sig nif i cantly with each other for the traits un der in ves ti ga tion. (a)Veg e ta tive char ac ters It is ev i dent from the re sults that among 9 hy brids and 1 open pol li nated variety se lected for the ex per i ment, sig nif i cant dif fer ences were ob served for leaf area, num ber of non-wrap per leaves, plant spread, plant mor tal ity and days to mar ket able ma tu rity. The of leaf area ranged from 439.96 cm 2 (Suttind Manas) to 1022.71 cm 2 (Varun). With re spect to num ber of non wrap per leaves it was in be tween 11.75 (T-621) to 14.98 (T-50). Sim i lar ob ser va tion was also ob served by Boswell and Pearson (2) who re ported high vari abil ity amongst va ri et ies with re spect to non wrap per leaves. Sim i larly, the cultivars also dif fered sig nif i cantly for plant spread with a max i mum value of 68.56 cm in T-50 and min i mum value of 55.73 cm in Golden Acre plants. In gen eral, the plant hav ing the more spread al ways re quires wider spac ing for its cul ti va tion. The sim i lar kind of vari a tions for plant spread in cab bage var i eties were also re corded by Srihari and Satyanarayans (10) and Znidarcic et al. (12). Plant mor tal ity in cab bage va ri et ies was mainly at trib uted to dis ease like root rot, col lar rot and head rot. The find ings also re vealed that among 9 hy brids, Blue Di a mond and In dica were least af fected by these dis ease with al most neg li gi ble per cent of plant mor tal ity i.e. zero or less than 1 per cent. Whereas, con trary to these, the mor tal ity was max i mum (27.39 %) in check va ri ety Golden Acre, Sim i lar kind of ob ser va tions in cab bage/ hy brids was also re corded by Reis et. al. (6). As ev i dent from Ta ble 1 that amongst all 10 va ri et ies in the study, check va ri ety, Golden Acre took the min i mum days to ma tu rity i.e. 44 days from the date of trans plant ing, whereas, Suttind Manas and In dica took max i mum du ra tion i.e. 63.66 and 63.00 days, re spec tively. These ob ser va tions of pres ent study had also been Performance of cabbage hybrids under rainfed mid-hill conditions of Uttarakhand 85 Ta ble 1: Per for mance of dif fer ent hy brids/va ri eties of cab bage un der mid- hills of Uttarakhand (Pooled (2009 and 2010). Hybrids/ variety Leaf area (cm 2 ) Number of non-wra pper leaves Plant spread (cm) Head size (cm 2 ) Net head weight (kg) Plant mar- tality (%) Days to mat- urity Head compact -ness (g/cm 3 ) Ascorbi c acid content (mg/ 100g) Yield (q/ha) Green Hero 685.19 13.73 59.66 397.05 1.19 1.69 53.83 14.39 136.80 441.95 Blue Diamond 724.76 13.28 59.76 464.63 1.36 0.00 53.83 14.78 139.53 544.80 T-50 773.97 14.98 68.56 511.50 2.10 3.60 53.83 19.63 101.70 801.19 Suttind Manas 439.96 12.84 57.66 405.37 1.58 4.08 63.66 19.52 125.68 463.24 Varun 1022.71 13.81 60.80 453.05 1.15 4.99 54.16 12.72 114.48 441.57 T-64 714.08 11.75 59.67 403.82 1.29 13.92 49.16 17.31 115.30 466.77 Indica 897.30 13.58 59.77 423.65 1.37 0.69 63.00 17.37 117.23 525.04 FM-Super 615.15 13.21 57.90 318.24 1.03 6.80 58.00 17.89 122.97 380.63 NBH-Arun 837.26 12.70 62.44 515.05 1.47 10.00 57.66 12.85 125.21 537.29 Golden Acre 444.04 11.82 55.73 311.27 0.91 27.39 44.00 14.84 93.20 269.72 86 Pathak et al. found in con for mity with the find ings re ported by Bhagchandani et al. (1), Islami et al. (3), Srihari and Satyanarayans (10) and Sharma and Verma (7). (b) Qual ity and Yield pa ram e ters The qual ity at trib utes stud ied were head com pact ness and ascor bic acid con tent. The head com pact ness was max i mum in T-50 (19.63 g/cm 3 ) and was closely fol lowed by Suttind Manas (19.52 g/cm 3 ) while, the min i mum value was in Varun (12.72 g/cm 3 ) and NBH-Arun (12.85 g/cm 3 ). Sim i lar to the pres ent find ings, Swarup and Sharma (11) had also no ticed wide range of vari a tions in the head com pact ness amongst the cab bages cultivars. Whereas, the ascor bic acid was found max i mum in hy brid Blue Di a mond (139.53 mg/100 g) fol lowed by Green Hero (136.80 mg/100 g) and it was Golden Acre (93.20 mg/100 g) re cord ing the min i mum ascor bic acid con tents in leaves. Sim i lar kind of vari a tion in leaf ascor bic acid con tent of broc coli va ri et ies were also re ported by Kaur et. al. (4) study. With re gard to yield pa ram e ters viz., head size, net head weight and yield (q/ha) the hy brids NBH-Arun and T-50 pro duced the larg est head size be ing at par to each other i.e. 515.05 cm 2 and 511.50 cm 2 , re spec tively. The max i mum net head weight (2.106 kg) and yield (801.19 q/ha) was ob served in hy brid T-50 was sig nif i cantly su pe rior over all other for net head weight and yield (q/ha). The min i mum yield pa ram e ters were found in open pol li nated var iety i.e. Golden Acre. In a sim i lar study Pandey et al. (5) re ported that yield of cab bage var ies greatly de pend ing upon cultivar and early ma tur ing cultivars gen er ally pro duced lower yield due to a shorter grow ing sea son as com pared to mid and late cultivar as ob served in the pres ent study. REF ER ENCES 1. Bhagchandani, P. M., Varma , T. S. and Singh, N. (1977). Study on se lec tion of cab bage cultivars for sum mer cul ti va tion in the hills. In dian J. Hort. 34(1): 60-63. 2. Boswell and Pearson. (1934). De scrip tion of types of prin ci pal va ri et ies in cab bage. US De part ment of Ag ri cul ture Mis cel la neous Pub li ca tion. 169 p. 3. Islami, Prifti, T. and Shumeli, M. (1990). Agrobiological eval u a tion of some forms of cab bage. buletinii Skencacea Bujdesore, 28 (4):59-63. 4. Kaur, C., Kumar, K., Dahuja, A. and Kapoor, H.C. (2007). Vari a tion in an ti ox i dant ac tiv ity in broc coli cultivars. J. Food Biochem. 31(5) : 621-638. 5. Pandey, V., Ahmad, Z. and Kumar, N. (2002). Per for mance of cab bage hy brids in the mid dle hill con di tions of the cen tral Hi ma la yas. Sabaro J. Breed . and Ge net ., 34(1):45-47. 6. Reis, Casali, Macedo and Reis. (2003). De part ment de Quimica, Universidable Fedral de Vicosa, Vicosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil, 53(4): 325-333. 7. Sharma, K.C. and Verma, S. (2000). Per for mance of some cab bage cultivars un der dry tem per ate high hills of Himanchal Pradesh. In dian J. Hort., 57(3) : 248-249. 8. Singh, B.K., Sharma, S.R. and Singh, B. (2009). Heterosis for min eral el e ments in sin gle cross- hy brids of cab bage. Sci. Hort., 122 (1): 32 -36. 9. Singh, B.K., Sharma, S.R. and Singh, B. (2010). Vari a tion in min eral con cen tra tions among cultivars and germplasms of cab bage. J. Plant Nutri. 33 (1): 95-04 10. Srihari and Satyanarayans (1992). Eval u a tion of some ex otic cab bage F 1 hy brids and cultivars. South In dian Hort., 40 (1) : 28-33. 11. Swarup, V. and Sharma, B.R. (1965). In her i tance of some ex otic cab bage F 1 hy brids and cultivars. South In dian Hort., 40 (1): 28-33. 12. Znidarcic, Marsic, osvald, pozrl, and Trdan. (2007). Yield and quality of early cabbage in response to within row plant spacing. Acta Agri. Slovenica. 89(1):15-23. Re search Note : IM PACT OF MICRONUTRIENT SPRAY ON GROWTH, YIELD AND QUAL ITY OF TO MATO (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) H.M.Singh* and Jitendra Kumar Tiwari Na tional Hor ti cul tural Re search and De vel op ment Foun da tion–Kota *E-mail:-hmsingh1983@ya hoo.com; jktiwari17@ya hoo.in AB STRACT: The pres ent ex per i ment com prised of five lev els of micronutrient and two lev els of con cen tra tion. The max i mum plant height, num ber of leaves per plant, num ber of flowers per plant, num ber of fruits per plant, fruit yield per plot, T.S.S. % and ascor bic acid (mg/100g) were found with the ap pli ca tion of T 8 (Bo ric acid + Zinc sul phate + Cop per sul phate @ 250 ppm each). The max i mum to tal sugar (%) was found un der T 0 (Con trol). Keywords : To mato, bo ron, cop per, zinc. To mato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) be longs to fam ily Solanaceae hav ing chro mo some no. 2n = 24. A large num ber of high yield ing va ri et ies and hy brids of tomato has been de vel oped by uni ver si ties, ICAR and other pri vate sec tors but the na tional av er age yield has not re corded as sig nif i cant level one of the main rea sons for this wide gap is that proper em pha sis has not been given on nutritional management. Ap pli ca tion of micronutrients has got the tremendous ef fects be sides the use of ma jor nu tri ent fer til izers to in crease crop yield. Adams (1) re ported that micro nut ri ents like bo ron, cop per and zinc if ap plied through fo liage can also im prove the veg e ta tive growth, fruit set and yield of to mato. Re sponse of veg e ta ble crops to ap pli ca tion of small quan tity of micro nut ri ent el e ments has been re ported by Mallick and Mathukrishnan (4). The main func tions of micronutrients are to help in the pho to syn the sis of green plants as well as the syn the sis of chlo ro phyll. The el e ments bo ron, cop per, man ga nese, iron, zinc and mo lyb de num are clas si fied as es sen tial micronutrients be cause their re quire ment is rel a tively low but they are as essential as the larger amount of primary and secondary nutrients for plant growth and development. The pres ent in ves ti ga tion on yield and qual ity of F 1 hy brid to mato var. Rashmi was car ried out un der field con di tions in the De part ment of Hor ti cul ture, Allahabad Ag ri cul tural In sti tute, Naini Allahabad (U.P.) dur ing win ter sea son of 2005-2006. There were a total of 11 treatments viz. T 0 -Con trol, T 1 -Bo ric acid @100 ppm, T 2 -Bo ric acid @ 250 ppm, T 3 -Zinc sul phate @100 ppm, T 4 -Zinc sul phate @ 250 ppm, T 5 -Cop per sul phate @ 100 ppm, T 6 -Cop per sul phate @ 250 ppm, T 7 -Bo ric acid + Zinc sul phate + Cop per sul phate @ 100 ppm each, T 8 -Bo ric acid + Zinc sul phate + Cop per sul phate @ 250 ppm each, T 9 -Com mer cial for mu la tion (Mul ti plex) @100 ppm and T 10 -Com mer cial for mu la tion (Mul ti plex) @ 250 ppm. Treatments were applied as faliar spray of micro-nutrients two times at 30 and 45 days after tomato seedlings transplanting which were replicated thrice in randomized block design. All cultural practises recommended for growing good crop were followed. Observations on various growth and yield parameters were recorded and analysed statistically. The ob ser va tions (Table 1) revealed at that the max i mum plant height (80.40 cm) was re corded in treat ment T 8 (80.40cm) fol lowed by T 7 (77.20 cm) and T 6 (77.07 cm) whereas, the min i mum plant height (66.60 cm) was re corded in treat ment T 0 (con trol) fol lowed by T 3 (72.07 cm). Com bined ap pli ca tion of micro- nutrient in creased the plant height which might be due to the fact that zinc may serve as source of en ergy for syn the sis of auxin, which helps in elon ga tion of stem. Sim i lar find ings Received : 29.12.2012 Accepted : 31.1.2013 HortFlora Research Spectrum, 2(1): 87-89 (Jan.-March 2013) ISSN : 2250-2823 88 Singh and Tiwari were also re ported by Bose and Tripathi (2). Max i mum num ber of leaves per plant was re corded in treat ment T 8 (54.40) fol lowed by T 7 (52.33) while min i mum num ber of leaves per plant was re corded in T 0 (41.67) fol lowed by T 3 (48.20) and T 9 (48.73). Max i mum num ber of flow ers per plant was re corded in T 8 (41.47) fol lowed by T 6 and T 7 (39.07), whereas min i mum num ber of flow ers was re corded in T 0 (30.87) fol lowed by T 3 (34.93) and T 9 (36.07). The vari a tion in num ber of flow ers per in flo res cence might be due to e nhancement in translocation of car bo hy drate from the site of syn the sis to stor age tis sue in plant and due to micronutrient com bi na tion par tic u larly bo rax. Sim i lar re sults have also been reported by Pandita et al. (5). The max i mum fruit yield per plant was ob served with T 7 and T 8 (1.18 kg each) fol lowed by fol lowed by T 6 (1.17 kg), while min i mum fruit yield per plant was re corded in T 0 and T 3 (1.09 kg each) fol lowed by T 9 (1.10) and T 1 and T 5 (1.11 kg). The max i mum TSS per cent age was re corded in treat ment T 8 (8.73) fol lowed by T 7 (8.53%) while min i mum TSS % was re corded in T 0 (7.87%) fol lowed by and T 3 (7.93%) and T 9 (7.97%). The re sults are in agree ment with the find ings of Rawat and Mathpal (6). The max i mum to tal sugar (°Brix) was re corded with T 0 (4.53 °Brix) fol lowed by T 1 (4.33) and T 2 (4.23), whereas min i mum to tal sugar was re corded with T 10 (3.83) fol lowed by T 8 and T 9 (3.90 °Brix). The max i mum ascor bic acid was re corded in T 8 (931.99 mg/100g) fol lowed by T 7 (31.33) and T 6 (30.64), while min i mum ascor bic acid was re corded in T 0 (28.08). Mallick and Muthukrishnan (4) and Chatterjee et al. (3) con firmed that zinc in creased the ascor bic acid con tent. The max i mum fruit yield per ha was re corded with T 8 (375.94 q) fol lowed by T 7 (353.77 q) and T 6 (348.03 q), whereas min i mum fruit yield per ha was re corded in T 0 (291.67 q) fol lowed by T 3 (306.94 q) and T 9 (308.64 q). On the ba sis of the above result it is con cluded that fo liar ap pli ca tion of bo ric acid + zinc sul phate Ta ble 1: Ef fect of treat ments on dif fer ent pa ram e ters of to mato cv. Rashmi. Treat- ments Plant height (cm) Number of leaves/ plant Number of flowers/ plant Number of fruits/ plant Fruit yield/ plant (kg) Fruit yield (q/ha) T.S.S. (%) Total sugar (%) Ascorbic acid (mg/ 100g) T 0 66.60 41.67 30.87 21.53 1.09 291.67 7.87 4.53 28.08 T 1 75.07 49.27 36.60 28.07 1011 319.13 8.20 4.33 29.00 T 2 76.13 50.93 37.67 29.67 1.15 344.70 8.50 4.23 30.16 T 3 72.07 48.20 34.93 26.20 1.09 306.94 7.93 4.20 28.41 T 4 75.53 49.80 36.80 28.33 1.12 328.70 8.20 4.20 29.17 T 5 72.93 48.93 36.20 26.80 1.11 314.70 8.17 4.10 28.93 T 6 77.07 50.93 39.07 31.40 1.17 348.03 8.50 4.07 30.64 T 7 77.20 52.33 39.07 32.67 1.18 353.77 8.53 4.00 31.33 T 8 80.40 54.40 41.47 35.67 1.18 375.94 8.70 3.90 31.99 T 9 72.13 48.73 36.07 26.53 1.10 308.64 7.97 3.90 28.60 T 10 75.67 50.80 37.67 29.47 1.14 339.76 8.27 3.83 29.77 CD (P=0.05) 0.98 1.18 1.05 0.84 0.02 5.26 0.13 0.13 0.44 + cop per sul phate @ 250 ppm each was found su pe rior over other treat ments for growth, flow er ing, yield and qual ity of to mato. REF ER ENCES 1. Ad ams, P. (2004). Ef fect of nu tri tion on to mato qual ity. To ma toes in peat. How feed vari a tions af fect yield. Grower, 89 (20): 1142-1143, 1145. 2. Bose, U.S. and Tripathi, S.K. (1996). Ef fect of micro nut ri ents on growth, yield and quality of to mato cv. Pusa Ruby in M.P. Crop Re s., Hissar, 12 (1): 61-64. 3. Chatterjee, C., Sinha, P., Sinha, Pratima and Dube, B.K. (2003). Ef fect of zinc on the yield and qual ity of to mato. In dian J. Hor t., 60 (1): 59-63. 4. Mallick, M.F.R. and Muthukrishnan, C.R. (1980). Ef fect of micro nut ri ents on to mato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.), II. Ef fect on flow er ing, fruit-set and yield. South In dian Hor t., 28 (1): 14-20. 5. Pandita, M.L., Arora, S.K. and Kirti Singh (1976). Ef fect of plant reg u la tors on the fruit set, early and to tal yield of to mato va ri ety HS-101 dur ing sum mer sea son. Haryana J. Hort. Sci., 8 (3-4): 112-116. 6. Rawat, P.S. and Mathpal, K.N. (1984). Ef fect of micro nut ri ents on yield and sugar me tab o lism of some of the veg e ta bles un der Kumaun Hill con di tions. Sci ence and Cul ture, 50 (8): 243-244. Impact of micronutrient spray on growth, yield and quality of tomato 89 Re search Note : EF FECT OF NAT U RAL AND CHEM I CAL FLO RAL PRE SER VA TIVES ON THE VASE LIFE OF DEN DRO BIUM HY BRID SONIA-17 Prathamesh Vaidya* and John P. Collis De part ment of Hor ti cul ture, Sam Higginbottom In sti tute of Ag ri cul ture, Tech nol ogy and Sci ences, Allahabad-211007(U.P.) *E-mail:
[email protected] AB STRACT: Observations on vase life and bud opening of cut flowers of Dendrobium cv. Sonia-17 as influenced by floral preservatives revealed that maximum vase life (37.33 days), flower diameter (8.14 cm), number of florets open at a time (7.30) and longest blooming period were recorded with 75 ppm HQC + 75 ppm AgNO 3 + 2% sucrose. Keywords : Or chid flower, pre ser va tives, wa ter up take, vase life. Or chids, be long ing to the fam ily Orchidaceae, are the most fas ci nat ing and beau ti ful flow ers. They con sti tute an or der of roy alty in the world of or na men tal plants and they are of im mense hor ti cul tural im por tance and play a very use ful role to bal ance the for est eco sys tem be cause of rich ness of the or chid’s flora. In the pro duc tion of cut flower one of the most im por tant as pects is to de liver the flower in gar den fresh con di tion to the mar ket, but this is rather a del i cate job. Flow ers are not adapted to long term sur vival. The cut flower dif fers from other hor ti cul tural prod ucts in many ways. Flo ral pre ser va tive are com monly used to re tard the se nes cence pro cesses in the vase life of cut flowers. Pre ser va tives can of ten at least dou ble the lon gev ity of cut flow ers. Keep ing this in view, the pres ent in ves ti ga tion was carried out. The study was con ducted in the lab o ra tory of the De part ment of Hor ti cul ture, SHIATS, Allahabad in com pletely ran dom ized de sign (CRD) u sing dif fer ent con cen tra tions and com bi na tion of chem i cals with nine treat ments and one con trol rep li cated thrice with ten flowers per treatment, viz. T 1 (con trol), T 2 (25% co co nut wa ter), T 3 (50% co co nut wa ter) T 4 (150 ppm 8-HQC + 2% su crose), T 5 (25 ppm AgNO 3 + 2% su crose), T 6 (50 ppm AgNO 3 + 2% su crose), T 7 (150 ppm STS + 2% su crose), T8 (75 ppm 8-HQC + 150 ppm Al 2 (SO 4 ) 3 + 2% su crose), T 9 (10 ppm KMNO 4 ) and T 10 (75 ppm 8-HQC + 75 ppm AgNO 3 + 2% su crose). The flow ers of Dendrobium cv. Sonia-17 were cut in the early morn ing, wrapped in Craft pa per in groups and translocated ver ti cally un der dry con di tions to the lab o ra tory within two hours. Then the flow ers were rap idly precooled by plac ing them in cool wa ter for 3 hours. The flow ers were placed in glass bot tles con tain ing 250 ml of pre vi ously men tioned chem i cal pre ser va tive so lu tions as well as dis tilled wa ter as con trol treat ment and kept in the lab o ra tory at room tem per a ture (25 ± 2°C) for 10 days; 30 – 35 % RH and con tin u ous light ing with flu o res cent lamps 1000 lux. The ob ser va tions on days to bud open ing, vase life (days), flower fresh weight (g) and fresh ness (days), flower di am e ter (cm), no. of max i mum open flo ret at a time, so lu tion up take (ml), pig men ta tion ex tend (days), bud open ing (%), days to open ing of first bud and to tal bloom ing pe riod (days) were recorded. The re sults ex pressed in Ta ble 1 re vealed that max i mum vase life of cut flower (37.33 days) was re corded in the treat ment T 10 (75 ppm 8-HQC + 75 ppm AgNO 3 + 2% su crose) and the min i mum vase life (17.66 days) was re corded with T 1 (con trol). High vase life was ac com pa nied by low ion leak age per cent age. Apart from be ing a broad spec trum bac te rium and fun gi cides, 8-HQC com pound have Received : 01.7.2012 Revised : 03.11.2012 Accepted : 15.1.2013 HortFlora Research Spectrum, 2(1): 90-92 (Jan.-March 2013) ISSN : 2250-2823 been re ported to re duce the phys i o log i cal stem block age in ster ile tis sue. Data on flower wa ter con tent (Ta ble 1) with low ion leak age per cent age had high wa ter con tent. Meeteren (5) re ported that wa ter con tent can cause de crease in wa ter re tain ing ca pac ity of the pet als. The on set of the de cline in wa ter con tent was de pended on the cultivar and as so ci ated with in crease of ion leak age. It is nec es sary to men tion that high wa ter con tent and also high ion leak age prob a bly oc curs due to dif fer ent phys i o log i cal be hav iour from one cultivar to an other. So in the pres ent study, phys i o log i cal be hav iour in this man ner may be ob serv ing. The flower di am e ters were sig nif i cantly in flu enced by 8-HQC, su crose and its con cen tra tions. Max i mum flower di am e ter (8.14 cm) was re corded with T 10 (75 ppm 8-HQC + 75 ppm AgNO 3 + 2% su crose) and min i mum flower di am e ter (6.40 cm) was re corded with con trol T 0 . The flower di am e ter is a suit able in dex to flower open ing and the stem di am e ter is im por tant fac tor of flower qual ity and play im por tant role in flower mar ket ing. The re sults in di cated that the ef fect of treat ments on wa ter up take was sig nif i cant. . Pre-har vest fac tors have di rect ef fect on fresh weight of cut flow ers. Evap o ra tion and tran spi ra tion are two im por tant fac tors that cause to re duce fresh weight and re duc ing of fresh weight play im por tant role to de ter mine vase life. Wilt ing of pet als re duces their or na men tal value as it sup ported in the ex per i ment re sults (Amariulei and Burgo, 1 and Nowak and Rudnicki, 6). Data (Ta ble 1) in di cated that max i mum vase so lu tion up take (7.30 ml) was ob served in treat ment T 10 (75 ppm 8-HQC + 75 ppm AgNO 3 + 2% su crose) fol lowed by 75 ppm 8-HQC + 150 ppm Al 2 (SO 4 ) 3 + 2% su crose (6.99 ml) and sig nif i cantly in creased wa ter up take in most cases as com pared to flow ers plac ing in other so lu tions or dis tilled wa ter (con trol). Also, it is clear from data that with the ex ten sion of shelf life pe riod, a grad u al de crease in the amount of wa ter up take was ob served af ter that day in most treat ments. The re sults are in agree ment with those of Farahat and Gaber (3) on Monestera deli ci osa. Su crose helps in main tain ing the wa ter bal ance and tur gid ity. Hence, ad di tion of su crose to hold ing so lu tion might have lead to in creased up take of the hold ing so lu tion. In our study, the de clin ing of wa ter up take by flow ers when they placed in wa ter may be due to vas cu lar block age par tic u larly at the stem base and us ing 8-HQS at var i ous con cen tra tions acted as a biocide in hib it ing mi cro bial pop u la tion that might have Effect of natural and chemical floral preservatives on the vase life of dendrobium hybrid sonia-17 91 Table1: Ef fect of nat u ral and chem i cal flo ral pre ser va tives on the quantative char ac ters of den dro bium or chids. Treatment details Vase life (days) Floral diameter (cm) Vase solution uptake (cm) Pigmentation extend (days) Percentage of bud opening (%) Days to opening of the first bud T 1 17.66 6.40 4.45 17.66 54.00 7.33 T 2 23.55 6.73 4.99 23.55 63.44 6.44 T 3 25.33 6.77 4.88 25.33 67.54 6.44 T 4 32.33 7.18 5.99 30.33 73.42 4.55 T 5 29.22 7.18 5.22 27.33 65.00 5.99 T 6 30.55 7.35 5.11 28.55 62.46 5.66 T 7 31.44 7.00 5.21 29.22 66.00 4.66 T 8 34.88 7.94 6.99 23.85 74.28 4.33 T 9 2.15 6.65 4.88 19.15 65.40 6.99 T 10 37.33 8.14 7.30 32.33 70.27 4.33 Mean 28.24 7.13 34.47 26.71 66.18 5.67 CD (P=0.05) 1.58 0.12 1.11 1.08 2.32 0.27 re sulted in block age of the vas cu lar tis sues, and sub se quently caused stem break. Pig men ta tion ex tent of flower in clud ing Den dro bium cv. Sonia-17 sig nif i cantly de pends on the qual ity of vase wa ter, mois ture retention ca pac ity of flower and wind ve loc ity. The data (Ta ble 1) showed max i mum pig men ta tion ex tent (32.33 days) was re corded in treat ment T 10 (75 ppm 8-HQC + 75 ppm AgNO 3 + 2% su crose) fol lowed by treat ment 150 ppm 8-HQC + 2% su crose (30.33 days) and min i mum was (17.33 days) re corded in con trol. It is ev i dent from the data (Table 1) that the per cent ages of bud open ing were sig nif i cantly af fected by all flo ral pre ser va tives as com pared with con trol. Among all the treat ments, the max i mum per cent age of bud open ing was re corded with treat ment T 8 (74.28%) fol lowed by T 4 (73.42%), T 10 (70.27%) and min i mum (54.00%) re corded in con trol. HQC was more ef fec tive in in creas ing bud open ing and vase life than AgNO 3 . This was sim i lar to the re sults (Ketsa and Boonrote, 4) for Den dro bium ‘Youppadeewan’ flow ers. The su pe ri or ity of HQC over AgNO 3 may have been due to the rel a tive im mo bil ity of AgNO 3 in the stem (Veen and Van de Geijin, 7). How ever, when AgNO 3 was re placed by STS in the hold ing so lu tion, bud open ing and vase life were not in creased confirming to reports of Chand et al. (2). In fact, STS re duced vase life (Ta ble 1) and wa ter up take of or chid flow ers, par tic u larly the whole in flo res cence and halved in flo res cence bear ing only open flo rets. The com bi na tion of HQC and AgNO 3 was more ef fec tive in main tain ing wa ter up take and pro long ing vase life than when ei ther HQC or AgNO 3 was used alone in com bi na tion with glu cose. This sug gests that the syn er gis tic ef fect of HQC and AgNO 3 on in creas ing vase life and in creased wa ter up take. Both HQC and AgNO 3 may have spe cific antimicrobial ac tiv i ties which is why they can not be sub sti tuted for each other. REF ER ENCES 1. Amariulei, A. and Burgo. L. (1981). Ef fect of su crose con cen tra tion in the hold ing so lu tion on the qual ity of car na tion. Pro duc tive Veg e ta ble Hor ti ., 30 (2): 34-38. 2. Chand, S., Kumar, V. and Kumar, J. (2012). Ef fect of AgNO 3 and 8-HQC on vase life of cut rose. HortFlora Res. Spec trum, 1 (4):380-382 3. Farahat, M.M. and Gaber, A. (2009). In flu ence of pre ser va tive ma te ri als on postharvest per for mance of cut win dow leaf fo liage (Monstera deli ci osa). Acta Hort., 3: 1715-1718. 4. Ketsa, S. and Boonrote, A. (1990). Hold ing so lu tions for max i miz ing bud open ing and vase-life of Den dro bium ‘Youppadeewan’ flow ers. J. Hortic. Sci., 65: 41-47. 5. Meeteren, Van U. (1978). Wa ter re la tions and keep ing-qual ity of cut gerbera flow ers. I. Wa ter bal ance of ag ing flow ers. Scientia Hort. 9: 189-197. 6. Nowak, J. and Rudnicki, R.M. (1990). Postharvest han dling and stor age of cut flow ers, flo rist greens and pot ted plants, Or e gon. U.S.A, Tim ber press. Inc. Reid M (2001). Ad vances in ship ping and han dling of ornamentals. Acta Hort. 543: 277-284. 7. Veen, H. and Van de Geijin, S.C. (1978). Mobility and ionic form of silver as related to longevity of cut carnations. Planta, 140: 93-96. 92 Vaidya and Collis