Influence Of Plant Growth Regulators And Micro Nutrient On Growth Flowering Yield And Quality Of Kagzi Lime Citrus Aurantifolia Swingle

Abstract

To investigate the influence of Naphthalene acetic acid, gibberellic acid, and Calcium chloride on fruiting, physical parameters and yield of Kagzi lime (Citrus aurantifolia Swingle) cv. Kagzi Lime an experiment was carried out at the Garden Department of Fruit Science, C. S. Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur (U.P.) during the cropping season 2022 and 2023. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with three replications and Ten treatments viz., T1-NAA (20ppm), T2-NAA (40ppm), T3-NAA (60ppm), T4-GA3 (10ppm), T5-GA3 (20ppm), T6-GA3 (30ppm), T7-CaCl2 (0.10%), T8-CaCl2 (0.15%), T9-CaCl2 (0.2%) and T0-Control (water spray only). Results of the study clearly shows that the highest fruit set was achieved with foliar application of GA3 at 20ppm resulting in a remarkable 74.35% fruit set, closely followed by GA3 at 10ppm (72.61%). These treatments significantly outperformed with each other s. Fruit drop was also notably reduced with the application of GA3 20ppm showing the lowest drop (45.61% in 2022 and 45.63% in 2023). In terms of fruit weight, plants treated with GA3 20ppm produced the heaviest fruits, with an average weight of (62.56g). Furthermore, both GA3 and NAA treatments led to larger fruit sizes but the plants treated with (GA3 20ppm) again being the most effective. The number of fruits per tree substantially increased with (GA3 20ppm), yielding 497.67 fruits. The highest yield per tree was also observed in the GA3 20ppm treatment with a remarkable yield of 48.42kg fruits per plant. During both years of investigation, it was recorded that GA3 at 20ppm exhibited significantly higher amount of total soluble solids (9.300Brix) and titratable acidity (8.70%) as compared to all other treatments. Similarly, NAA treatments also contributed to an increase in the TSS and titratable acidity content with the rise in their concentrations. In terms of TSS: Acid ratio, there were no significant differences were recorded within the treatments, indicating its stability.