Foliar spray of gibberellic acid influences morphological attributes and foliage yield of coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.)

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at the research field of Sher-e- Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka during the period from December 1, 2016 to January 11, 2017 to investigate the effect of gibberellic acid (GA₃) on vegetative growth, morphological attributes and foliage (leaf) yield of coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.). The experimental treatments consisted of eight different doses of GA₃ viz., 0 (distilled water spray), 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 ppm. The variety Rosina (Pahuja Co., India) was used as planting material and different doses of GA₃ were applied on the plants at 25 and 30 days after sowing. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. GA₃ had significant effect on vegetative growth, morphology, foliage yield and yield contributing characters of coriander. Plant height, number of leaves plant^-1, leaf length, plant spread and single plant weight were found maximum from the application of GA₃ at 20 ppm, which was closely followed by 25 ppm GA₃. Application of GA₃ at 20 ppm produced the highest weight of foliage m^-2. A strong positive correlation of foliage yield was observed with plant height, number of leaves plant^-1, leaf length, plant spread, single plant weight and weight of foliage m^-2. Application of GA₃ at 20 ppm gave maximum foliage yield (9.34 t ha^-1) which was followed by GA₃ at 15 ppm (8.46 t ha^-1) and 25 ppm (8.06 t ha^-1), and the minimum foliage yield was recorded from control (distilled water spray) (4.90 t ha^-1). Application of GA₃ at 20 ppm increased foliage yield over control by 47.54 %. A quadratic relationship between applied GA₃ concentration and foliage yield was found; the regression equation was y = 4.87 + 0.375x – 0.009x² from which it came up to be optimum dose of GA₃ as 20.83 ppm.

Res. Agric., Livest. Fish.5(1): 1-9, April 2018