Effecf of plant growth regulators on growth, earliness and sex ratio in watermelon under Chhattisgarh region

A study on the effect of plant growth regulators in Watermelon (Citrullus Janatus Thumb) cv. Sugar Baby was conducted during summer season. The application of ethrel at 500 ppm concentration brought significant improvement in vegetative characters of plants i.e. main vine length and number of secondary branches per plant. GA₃ (25 and 50 ppm) produced the female flowers at lower nodes and initiated early flowering which consequently resulted in early yield. Besides, early yield by both concentration of GA₃ it also caused lower sex ratio along with greater number of fruits per plant followed by both concentrations of ethrel (250 and 500 ppm).The MH and NAA treatments were less effective for early and high yield as compare to GA₃ and ethrel treatments.