The present experiment was conducted at the Horticultural Instructional Farm, Department of Horticulture, J.A.U., Junagadh during the winter 2004-05. The experiment comprised of ten treatments, viz., three concentrations of GA3 (50, 150, 250 ppm) at three frequencies (single, double and triple spray at 30, 45 and 60 days from transplanting) and control. Each treatment was replicated thrice in randomized block design. Of the different treatments, GA3 250 ppm single spray recorded maximum plant height and plant spread. Number of branches per plant was highest under double spray of GA3 at 50 ppm. Longest flowering duration, maximum flower diameter and maximum shelf-life were observed with single spray of 250 ppm GA3. It also registered maximum number and weight of flowers per plant besides highest flower yield

Ahlawat, T R

Delvadia, D V

Meena, B J

English

Journal of Horticultural Sciences

Of the various seasonal flowers, Gaillardia (Gaillardiapulchella Foug.) is an important flower crop of the Asteraceaefamily. It is commonly known as “Blanket Flower” and is anative of America. Gaillardia is fast gaining prominence as acommercial crop, owing to its wide adaptability to varying soiland climatic conditions, better resistance to pest and diseases,hardy nature, long duration of flowering and attractive flowercolour. In the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, flowers of Gaillardiaare extensively used in preparation of garlands and for decorationpurpose during weddings, religious ceremonies, festivals andsocial gatherings. It is widely marketed as a loose flower andoften as a substitute for marigold and chrysanthemum, wheneverthese flowers are in short supply or out of season. In recentyears, idea of regulating plant growth, flower yield and qualityby application of plant growth regulators has assumed significantimportance. Therefore an attempt was made to study theresponse of Gaillardia to gibberellic acid at three differentconcentrations and frequencies.The present experiment was conducted at theHorticultural Instructional Farm, Department of Horticulture,J.A.U., Junagadh during winter season of the year 2004-05. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized BlockDesign (RBD) with three replications and ten treatmentsincluding control. The treatments comprised of threeShort communicationEffect of different GA3 concentration and frequency on growth, flowering and yield inGaillardia (Gaillardia pulchella Foug.) cv. LorenzianaD.V. Delvadia, T.R. Ahlawat and B.J. MeenaDepartment of HorticultureJunagadh Agricultural UniversityJunagadh-362 001, IndiaE-mail: tahlawat@jau.inABSTRACTThe present experiment was conducted at the Horticultural Instructional Farm, Department of Horticulture, J.A.U.,Junagadh during the winter 2004-05. The experiment comprised of ten treatments, viz., three concentrations of GA3(50, 150, 250 ppm) at three frequencies (single, double and triple spray at 30, 45 and 60 days from transplanting) andcontrol. Each treatment was replicated thrice in randomized block design. Of the different treatments, GA3 250 ppmsingle spray recorded maximum plant height and plant spread. Number of branches per plant was highest underdouble spray of GA3 at 50 ppm. Longest flowering duration, maximum flower diameter and maximum shelf-life wereobserved with single spray of 250 ppm GA3. It also registered maximum number and weight of flowers per plantbesides highest flower yield.Keywords: Gaillardia, GA3, growth, flowering, yieldconcentrations of GA3 (50, 150 and 250 ppm) and threefrequencies single, double and triple sprays. GA3 wassprayed thrice, starting from 30 days of transplantation andat 15 days intervals for second and third sprays. Theseedlings of Gaillardia were transplanted at a spacing of 45x 45 cm. Uniform cultural practices were followed to raisea good crop. Five plants were selected randomly from thenet plot in each treatment and tagged for the purpose ofrecording different observations. Characters such as plantheight, plant spread, number of branches per plant and shelf-life were recorded at full bloom stage. The duration fromfirst flower opening to final harvesting was recorded asflowering span. Flower diameter was measured usingVernier caliper. Number and weight of flowers per plantwas computed by summing up number and weight of flowersobtained during each plucking from randomly selected fiveplants. The data were expressed per plant. While floweryield was calculated by multiplying average weight of flowerwith total number of flowers per plant. The data thusgenerated were statistically analyzed.Effect on growth parametersPlant height was significantly influenced by GA3 atall levels (Table 1). The maximum height was recorded withJ. Hortl. Sci.Vol. 4 (1): 81-84, 200982a single spray and triple spray of GA3 at 250 ppm (45.20cm and 43.24 cm respectively). GA3 was known to increasethe plant height by influencing the internodal length,attributable to both cell division and cell elongation (Reddyand Sulladmath, 1983). Increased auxin content was reporteddue to the application of GA3 and resulting in apicaldominance, which may also have contributed to theincreased plant height (Scott et al, 1967). Promotion in plantheight as a consequence of GA3 application was earlierreported by Makwana (1999) in Gaillardia.A somewhat similar trend was observed in plantspread where all treatments registered a significant increasein plant spread over control. A single spray of GA3 at 250ppm registered the maximum plant spread (39.10 cm).According to Verma (1991) it was due to the formation ofnew cells in meristematic region and an increase in size andmass of cells produced. Similar findings were also reportedby Singh et al (1991) in marigold.A significant increase in number of branches perplant was observed with the application of a single spray ofGA3 at 250 ppm, double spray of GA3 at 50, 150 and 250ppm and a triple spray of GA3 at 150 and 250 ppm. Of theabove treatments, GA3 50 ppm double spray yielded thehighest number of branches per plant (24.33). Increase inthe number of branches with GA3 treatment may be due tothe hyper elongation of internodal length and a resultantincrease in nodal count on the main axis. Consequently thesenodes increased number of dormant buds from where theprimary branches may have originated (Krishna Kumar andUghreja, 1998).  This confirms the report on an increase innumber of branches with GA3 application in Gaillardia byPatel (1998).Effect on flowering traitsThe influence of varying GA3 levels on floweringtraits and shelf-life of Gaillardia indicated significantdifferences in the flowering span, flower diameter and shelflife as affected by various treatments (Table 2).GA3 250 ppm single spray, GA3 50 ppm doublespray and GA3 250 ppm triple spray recorded a significantincrease in flowering span. Advanced bud formation andonset of flowering in GA3 treated plants was attributed toenhanced flowering duration (Dutta et al, 1993). Prolongedflowering duration owing to GA3 was also documented byDahiya and Rana (2001) in chrysanthemum.A 250 ppm single spray, 250 ppm triple spray, 150and 50 ppm single spray of GA3 showed a significantincrease in flower diameter over control. They were all atpar with each other. The enlargement in flower size is causedby drawing of photosynthates to the flower as a consequenceof increased sink activity (Zieslin et al, 1974). According toDutta et al (1993) the enhancement in flower size might bedue to an increase in the length of the petals and pedicelsaccompanied by increased number of petals. It is inconformity with the observations of Meher et al (1999) inchrysanthemum.A single spray of GA3 at 150 and 250 ppmsignificantly enhanced the shelf-life of flowers. Thesetreatments were at par with each other. The maximum shelflife (72.80 h) was observed when the plants were subjectedto a single spray of GA3 at 250 ppm. GA3 reduces waterloss and has anti-senescence properties leading to enhancedshelf-life of flowers (Singh et al, 1994). Similar results wereTable 1.  Effect of various GA3 concentrations and frequencies onvegetative growth in GaillardiaTreatment Plant height Plant spread No. ofat full at full branches/bloom (cm) bloom  (cm) plantT1GA3 50 ppm single 25.40 35.60 15.00T2GA3 150 ppm single 34.25 37.96 13.68T3GA3 250 ppm single 45.20 39.10 16.68T4GA3 50 ppm double 39.80 27.96 24.33T5GA3 150 ppm double 39.89 22.13 19.68T6GA3 250 ppm double 41.54 29.06 17.00T7GA3 50 ppm triple 39.60 26.83 11.33T8GA3 150 ppm triple 42.42 24.87 15.68T9GA3 250 ppm triple 43.24 29.90 19.67T10  Control 22.96 20.10 12.00S. Em + 0.82 0.68 1.04C. D. (P = 0.05) 2.44 2.02 3.10C. V. % 3.61 4.14 10.64Table 2.  Effect of varying GA3 levels and frequencies on floweringtraits and shelf life in  GaillardiaTreatment Flowering Flower Shelf-lifespan diameter of loose(days) (cm) flowers(hours)T1GA3 50 ppm single 80.33 5.85 68.20T2GA3 150 ppm single 75.00 5.86 71.10T3GA3 250 ppm single 91.33 6.30 72.80T4GA3 50 ppm double 86.00 5.75 63.33T5GA3 150 ppm double 71.66 5.55 65.80T6GA3 250 ppm double 63.33 5.49 60.73T7GA3 50 ppm triple 58.33 5.67 69.43T8GA3 150 ppm triple 74.66 5.71 70.40T9GA3 250 ppm triple 85.33 5.95 67.87T10Control 73.33 5.32 68.10S. Em + 3.38 0.12 0.90C. D. (P = 0.05) 7.06 0.50 2.72C. V. % 5.42 5.20 4.05J. Hortl. Sci.Vol. 4 (1): 81-84, 2009Delvadia et al83also reported by Dutta and Seemanthini (1998) inchrysanthemum.Effect on yield charactersSignificant differences in flower yield and itsassociated traits were observed with application of GA3(Table 3). With the sole exception of GA3 250 ppm doublespray, all other treatments recorded a significant increasein number of flowers over control. Maximum numbers offlowers (150.48) were observed with a single spray of GA3at 250 ppm.This is attributed to the production of large numberof laterals at an early stage of growth, which then hadsufficient time to accumulate reserve carbohydrates for properflower bud differentiation (Dutta et al, 1993). Increasingnumber of flowers per plant was observed because of theproduction of large number of branches and more plant spreaddue to GA3 application.  This result finds support from thefindings of Poshiya et al (1995) in Gaillardia.All treatments proved significantly superior overcontrol in increasing weight of flowers per plant. Single sprayof GA3 at 250 ppm registered the highest flower weight(341.60 g). This treatment was at par with a single spray ofGA3 at 50 and 150 ppm, a double spray of GA3 50 ppm anda triple spray of GA3 at 150 ppm. Increase in weight offlowers per plant with GA3 may be attributed to theproduction of more number of flowers with larger size andmore florets. Dehale et al (1993) also observed similarresults in chrysanthemum with GA3 application.A significant increase in flower yield was observedby the application of GA3 at all levels. A single spray ofGA3 at 250 ppm recorded the highest flower yield (18.06 t/ha). The increase in flower yield was due to the productionof more number of flowers per plant and improvement inweight of flowers per plant. Similar results were reportedby Pandya (2000) in marigold.It can thus be inferred that a single spray of GA3 at250 ppm was found best for optimum growth and productionof Gaillardia flowers under South Saurashtra conditions ofGujarat.REFERENCESDahiya, D.S. and Rana, G.S. 2001. Regulation of floweringin chrysanthemum as influenced by GA3 and shade-houses of different intensities. South Ind. Hort.,49:313-314Dehale, M.H., Deshmukh, P.P. and Moharkar, V.K. 1993.Influence of foliar application of GA3 on quality ofchrysanthemum. J. Soils and Crops, 3:135-137Dutta, J.P. and Seemanthini, R. 1998. Growth and floweringresponse of chrysanthemum (Dendranthemagrandiflora cv. Tzvelev.) to growth regulatortreatments. Orissa J. Hort., 26:70-75Dutta, J.P., Seemanthini, Ramdas and Khader. A.M.D.1993. Regulation of flowering by growth regulatorsin chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum indicum L.) cv.CO-1. South Ind. Hort., 41:293-299Krishna Kumar and Ughreja, P.P. 1998. Effect of foliarapplication of GA3, NAA, MH and Ethrel on growth,flowering and yield of chrysanthemum(Chrysanthemum morifolium Ram.) cv. IIHR-6. J.Applied Hort., 4:20-26Makwana, M.K. 1999. The effect of plant growth regulatorson growth, yield and quality of gaillardia (Gaillardiapulchella) cv. Lorenziana. M.Sc. (Agri.) thesis,GAU, Sardar KrushinagarMeher, S. P., Jitode, D.J., Turkhede, A.B., Darange, S.O.,Ghatol, P.U. and Dhawad, C.S. 1999. Effect ofplanting time and growth regulator treatments onflowering and yield of chrysanthemum(Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat). Crop Res.,18:345-348Pandya, P.N. 2000. Effect of plant growth regulators ongrowth, yield and vase life of African marigold(Tagetes erecta L.) cv. Lemon Yellow. M. Sc. thesisGAU, Sardar KrushinagarPatel, S.L. 1998. Effect of plant growth regulators ongrowth, flowering and flower yield of annual(Gaillardia pulchella) var. Lorenziana. M.Sc.(Agri). thesis, GAU, Sardar KrushinagarTable 3. Effect of different GA3 levels and frequencies on yieldcharacters in GaillardiaTreatment No. of Total Flowerflowersper weight of yield plant flowersper (t/ha)plant(g)T1GA3 50 ppm single 120.20 320.20 15.68T2GA3 150 ppm single 131.80 323.90 16.08T3GA3 250 ppm single 150.48 341.60 18.06T4GA3 50 ppm double 104.53 319.80 15.09T5GA3 150 ppm double 97.25 290.10 14.21T6GA3 250 ppm double 91.30 288.03 14.06T7GA3 50 ppm triple 110.67 312.93 15.35T8GA3 150 ppm triple 122.10 323.10 15.85T9GA3 250 ppm triple 102.93 312.43 15.52T10Control 82.20 259.50 12.51S. Em + 3.14 9.53 0.41C. D. (P = 0.05) 10.14 28.10 1.33C. V. % 5.32 5.18 5.10Effect of gibberellic acid on GaillardiaJ. Hortl. Sci.Vol. 4 (1): 81-84, 200984Poshiya, V.K., Katariya, G.K. and Chovatia V.P. 1995. Effectof growth substances on growth and yield in gaillardia.J. Applied Hort., 1:99-100Reddy, Y.T.N. and Sulladmath, U.V. 1983. Effect of growthregulators on growth and flowering of China aster(Callistephus chinensis Nees). South Ind. Hort.,31:95-98Scott, T.K., Case, D.B. and Jacobs W.P. 1967. Auxingibberellin interaction in apical dominance. Pl.Physiol., 42:1329-1333Singh, J.N., Singh, D.K. and Sharma K.K. 1994. Effect ofGA3 and alar on growth, flowering and seedproduction of dahlia (Dahlia variabilis L.) OrissaJ. Hort., 22:10-12Singh, M.P., Singh, R.P. and Singh, G.N. 1991. Effect ofGA3 and ethrel on the growth and flowering of Africanmarigold (Tagetes erecta L.). Har. J. Hortl. Sci.,2:81-84Verma, V. 1991. “A Text Book of Plant Physiology”. EmkayPublications, Delhi. 518pZieslin, N., Brian, I. and Halevy, A.H. 1974. The effectof growth regulators on growth and pigmentationof Baccara rose flowers. Pl. Cell Physiol.,15:341-349(MS Received 19 August 2008, Revised 4 March 2009)J. Hortl. Sci.Vol. 4 (1): 81-84, 2009Delvadia et al

Effect of Different GA3 Concentration and Frequency on Growth, Flowering and Yield in Gaillardia (Gaillardia pulchella Foug.) Cv. Lorenziana

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Effect of Different GA3 Concentration and Frequency on Growth, Flowering and Yield in Gaillardia (Gaillardia pulchella Foug.) Cv. Lorenziana

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