Vol. 10, Issue 12 (2021)

Author(s):
Manmohan Singh Bhooriya, TR Sharma and RK Jhade

Abstract:
Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is one of the famous table fruits mainly cultivated in tropical and sub-tropical eco-system. It is a newly introduced as alternate commercial fruit crop against Nagpur mandarin in Chhindwara district of Satpura plateau region of M.P. during 2012. One of the major problems under this condition is that cv. Bhagwa exhibits heavy flowering and fruit drop by increasing the fruit set and fruit retention. Plant growth regulators are reported to play a significant role in pomegranate (Chaudhari and Desai, 1993). A field experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of NAA and Nutrient levels on fruit retention and yield attributes of Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.). The experiment was conducted on pomegranate on 7-year old Bhagwa cultivar at a spacing of 12 x 8 ft. at JNKVV, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Chhindwara (M.P.) India during ambia bahar of pomegranate. The investigation was carried out during year (2019-20 and 2020-21). The experiment consisted of eighteen treatments combination include three level of recommended dose of fertilizers as soil application (100%, 75% and 125% RDF) with three level of NAA (0ppm, 10ppm and 20ppm) and drip fertigation (15 days and 30 days interval) with three replications under factorial randomized block design. The present investigation revealed that maximum fruit weight, fruit length, fruit breadth, no. of flower/shoot, and minimum days to 50% flowering was recorded in treatment T₁₃ (100% RDF + NAA 20 ppm + fertigation 15 days interval) followed by in T₇ (100% RDF + NAA 10 ppm + fertigation 15 days interval), maximum days to 50% flowering was recorded under treatment T₆ (125% RDF + 0ppm NAA + fertigation 30 days) and maximum acidity (%) was recorded under T₁₈ (125% RDF + 20ppm NAA + fertigation 30 days). Whereas the lowest fruit weight, fruit length, fruit breadth, no. of flower/shoot and acidity (%) were recorded under treatment T₄ (75% RDF + 0ppm NAA + fertigation 30 days intaval) during both the years and in pooled analysis. Chemical fertilizer (N, P, K) and plant growth hormone (NAA) significantly effected on fruit retention and quality of pomegranate fruits.