EFFECT OF GIBBERELLIC ACID (GA3) ON MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS AND YIELD PERFORMANCE OF CHICKPEA

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at the Crop Physiology and Ecology Research field and Laboratory of Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur during the period from December, 2017 to April 2018 to study the effect of gibberellic acid (GA3) on morphological traits and yield performance of chickpea. The experiment consisted of two factors: Factor A: Two growing conditions, viz; control and foliar application of GA3. Factor B: Four chickpea varieties, viz; Deshi, BARI Chola-3, BARI Chola-5 and BARI Chola-9. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. Plant height, leaf dry weight, shoot and root dry weight plant-1 at different days after sowing maintained a typical sigmoid pattern in all chickpea varieties both under control and GA3 applied condition. The percentage of increasing in maximum plant height, leaf dry weight plant-1 , shoot dry weight plant-1 and root dry weight plant-1 were 6.21%, 9.59%, 12.00% and 9.05% in Deshi variety; 4.54%, 3.06%, 4.89% and 4.76% in BARI Chola-3; 5.21%, 9.28%, 8.25% and 10.07% in BARI Chola-5 and 8.31%, 13.44%, 9.80% and 9.58% in BARI Chola-9, respectively under GA3 applied condition. The combined effect of growing conditions and chickpea varieties significantly influenced number of flowers plant-1 , number of pods plant-1 , 100-seed weight, biological yield and seed yield. BARI Chola-9 produced the maximum seed yield at both control and GA3 applied condition (2.45 and 2.71 t h-1 , respectively) on the contrary BARI Chola-3 produced the minimum seed yield (1.86 and 1.97 t h-1 , respectively). Foliar application of GA3 resulted increasing in all traits of chickpea varieties but the magnitude of increasing was not similar to all varieties. The order of positive response in relation to foliar application of gibberellic acid (GA3) was BARI Chola-9 > Deshi > BARI Chola-5 > BARI Chola-3.