Plant growth and fruit yield attributes of cape gooseberry cv. Aligarh as affected by the use of different growth regulators

The present investigation was carried out in the Departmental nursery of Khalsa College, Amritsar during year 2013–14. It is comprised of seven treatments as NAA (5, 10 and 15 ppm), GA₃ (10, 15 and 20 ppm) and control which were replicated four times. A unit of eight plants per plot considered as one replication. The growth regulators were applied immediately after fruit set. Both the growth regulators were found to be effective in improving the growth characters as plant height, stem thickness, average shoot length, shoot thickness, internodal length and average leaf area than control. GA₃ 20 ppm proved to be most effective in improving the growth characters than all the other treatments. Fruit set per cent (71.40%) found to be maximum in plants which were treated with NAA 15 ppm whereas the plants sprayed with GA₃10 ppm yielded maximum fruits (1.58 kg/plant). Fruits showed rich colour and the maturation time (175.30 days) was delayed in those plants which were sprayed with GA₃ 20 ppm.