Effect of Pinching and Nitrogen on Growth, Flowering and Seed Yield in African Marigold cv Pusa Narangi Gainda

摘要

A field experiment was carried out to study the effect of pinching and nitrogen on different characters of marigold. The experiment was planned out in randomized block design with 12 treatments each replicated three times. The treatments include threelevels of pinching i. e. no pinching, single pinching at 40 days after transplanting and double pinching at 40 and 60 days after transplanting with four levels of nitrogen i.e. 0%, 1%, 2% and 3%. Data on growth characters revealed that treatment with nopinching + 2% N recorded maximum primary branches per plant (19.20) and dry weight of leaf (0.25 g). Whereas, the leaf area index was highest in no pinching + 3% N (13.42). Whereas, stem diameter was found maximum in single pinching at 1% N (2.33 cm). Data on flowering characters showed that earliest days to bud initiation was found in treatment with no pinching without N (63.67 days) whereas, number of flowers recorded maximum in doublepinching + 2% N (49.13). Data on seed character revealed that treatment with no pinching at 3% N recorded maximum number of seeds per flower (296.33), weight of seed per flower (0.60 g) and 100 seed weight (0.27 g), whereas maximum seed yield per plant was obtained with treatment double pinching + 2% N (21.77 g).