Effects of Naphthalene Acetic Acid and Zinc Sulphate on Fruiting Behavior and Quality of Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) cv. Rose Scented

Abstract

The current study evaluated the effect of NAA and zinc sulphate to maintain fruiting behaviour and qualitative attributes of fruit in litchi cv. Rose scented. This experiment was done in 2022 and 2023 at the Horticulture Garden, Department of Fruit Science, C.S. Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur (U.P.). There were sixteen treatments including four levels of zinc sulphate (0, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 %), NAA (0, 25, 50 and 75 ppm) and their combinations imitated in Factorial- CRD. The foliar application of treatments was done on January 28 and March 16 of each year, prior to flowering and fruit setting at pea stage, respectively.  This experiment showed that the treatment with NAA 50ppm and 0.4% zinc sulphate improved fruit set (63.40 and 62.73 %), fruit retention (30.76 and 31.36 %) and reduced fruit drop (69.23 and 68.63 %). The same treatment blend increased juice content of litchi fruit (63.63 and 64.22 %) and also improved nutritional qualities of fruit like total soluble solids (22.75 and 22.62 0Brix), total sugar (14.48 and 14.54 %), ascorbic acid (41.22 and 41.64 mg/ 100g of pulp), organoleptic test (85.36 and 86.82) and minimum titratable acidity (0.473 and 0.421 percent) in litchi fruits. The treatment combination of NAA 50ppm and 0.4% zinc sulphate was found to be the best in this experiment.