Effect of Plant Growth Regulators on Growth, Fruit Setting and Quality of Guava (Psidium guajava L.) in Meadow Orchard

Abstract

The present study, "Effect of plant growth regulators on growth, fruit setting, and quality of guava (Psidium guajava L.) in meadow orchard," was carried out in the years 2021–2022, at Central Research Farm, Department of Horticulture, Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture & Sciences, Prayagraj (U.P.). Ten treatments made up the experiment with: control, three concentrations of gibberellic acid (GA3) at 75, 100, and 125 ppm, three concentrations of naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) at 200, 250, and 300 ppm, and three concentrations of chlormequat (CCC) at 400, 500, and 600 ppm. These treatments were evaluated in Randomized Blocked Design with three replications. The results showed that a combination of different plants growth regulators had a significant impact on the guava plant's growth and yield parameters, including its height (5.81 m), total number of flowers per plant (178.6), fruiting buds per plant (151.8), number of fruits per plant (127.1), fruit set (71.2%), plant spread (E-W-6.00 m & N-S- 5.89 m), fresh fruit weight (115.5g), and dry weight (78.5g), Fruit diameter (polar-8.46cm & radial-8.16cm), total soluble solids (TSS) 10.170Brix, total sugar (9.2%), and yield/plant (14.7kg) were all found to be higher under the treatment T4 Naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) @200ppm, whereas acidity (0.56%) was at its highest in T0 Control.