INFLUENCE OF GA 3 ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF FRENCH MARIGOLD

Abstract

The experiment was conducted at the Horticulture farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh during the period from October 2018 to January 2019. Five French marigold cultivars viz. V 1 (Royal yellow fire), V 2 ii (Royal red), V 3 (Royal orange), V 4 (Royal bolero) and V 5 (Royal yellow) and four levels of GA 3 application viz. G 0 (control; 0 ppm GA 3 ), G 1 (50 ppm GA 3 ), G 2 (100 ppm GA 3 ) and G 3 (150 ppm GA 3 ) were considered for the study. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. In case of the combination of cultivars and GA 3 , all the parameters were affected significantly. The maximum plant height (34.67 cm) and number of leaves plant -1 (25.40) were achieved from V 4 . The lowest days to 1 st visible flower bud (14.67), days to 1 st flower (14.67), days to 50% flowering (25.33) and days to 80% flowering (31.67) were recorded from V 4 which also gave highest number of branches plant -1 (9.87), floral diameter (6.53 cm), single flower weight (5.33 g), total number of flowers plant -1 (24.62) and number of flowers ha -1 (6154 thousand). Again, the minimum plant height (24.93 cm) and number of branches plant -1 (4.67) were recorded from V 5 G 0 which also contributed to the lowest floral diameter (5.03 cm), single flower weight (2.00 g), total number of flowers plant 1 (15.05) and number of flowers ha -1 (3763 thousand). Concerning economic study, the highest gross return (Tk. 615400), net return (Tk. 397992) and BCR (2.83) were obtained from V 4 G 2 whereas the lowest gross return (Tk. 376300), net return (Tk. 162162) and BCR (1.75) were obtained from V 5 G 0 . From the above results, it can be concluded that the treatment combination of V 4 G 2 G 3 G 2 (Royal bolero with 100 ppm GA 3 ) showed highest yield advantage regarding flower yield of marigold and this treatment combination can be considered as the best treatment combination.