In a field study mepiquat chloride (MC) (1, 1-dimethyl piperidinium chloride) was sprayed at pre-flowering stage on two chickpea varieties i.e. Pusa 261 and BG 384 having limited and excessive vegetative growth, respectively. MC treatment, in both the varieties, increased the leaf dry weight but had no effect on root and stem dry weights. In BG 384, however, number of secondary and tertiary branches and leaf area were increased. The chlorophyll content of leaf increased with MC treatment and was maintained at higher level as compared to control during reproductive stage. BG 384 showed increase in number of pods per plant, pod weight and seed weight per plant and yield per m2 with MC treatment but no such effect was observed in case of Pusa 261. The study indicated that higher levels of chlorophyll content in MC treated plants provided conditions for higher production of photosynthates which were utilized by BG 384 for grain yield due to larger sink resulting from increased branching and more number of pods.
