Response of Lemon Plants to Foliar Spray of Chemical and Growth Regulators on Flowering, Fruit Quality and Yield Attributes
Chinmoy Mandal
Department of Pomology and Post Harvest Technology, Faculty of Horticulture, Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari, Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India.
Soustav Datta
Department of Fruit Science, Faculty of Horticulture, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Nadia, West Bengal, India.
Sukanya Dutta
Department of Fruit Science, Faculty of Horticulture, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Nadia, West Bengal, India.
Susmita Dey
Department of Fruit Science, Faculty of Horticulture, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Nadia, West Bengal, India.
Subhasis Kundu
Department of Fruit Science, Faculty of Horticulture, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Nadia, West Bengal, India.
Prerna Baraily
Department of Pomology and Post Harvest Technology, Faculty of Horticulture, Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari, Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India.
Suddhasuchi Das *
Malda Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalay, Ratua, Malda, West Bengal, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Lemons are gaining popularity in India because of its multiple utility, production all the year round and tolerance against citrus decline and other citrus disorders. But due to the peak and lean production in the same year, farmers don’t get the high return in the time of peak production due to high availability of fruits and the time of lean production due to low quality fruits and due to disease infestations, less production of the fruits farmers again faced loss economical condition. In the current investigation, plant growth regulators and chemical were sprayed on 4th week of December, 2021 at Horticulture Research Station, Mondouri, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Nadia in Randomized Block Design (RBD) with an objective to find out suitable foliar spray treatment for better reproductive behavior, yield, physical and chemical characters of lemon. Early flowering was observed in KNO3 2%, the highest flowering duration, maximum number of flowers per shootlet, fruit set (%) as well as fruit retention (%) and lowest fruit drop (%) were noted in plants treated with CCC 1000 ppm. A significant variation also noticed in physical parameters and chemical parameters of fruits, where CCC 1000 ppm showed the best result compared to control. The maximum percentage increase of yield per plant over control (23.5%) also noticed in CCC 1000 ppm. So, it can be concluded that KNO3 2% can be used for early flowering and CCC 1000 ppm can be used in lemon for more flowering, better fruit quality and production.
Keywords: Flowers per shootlet, lemon, plant growth regulator, reproductive characters