Vol. 11, Issue 6 (2022)

Author(s):
Alok Kumar, MD Abu Nayyer, Lavkush Pandey, Anshuman Singh and Ritesh Singh

Abstract:
The present investigation entitled “Effect of Different Plant Spacing and Pinching on growth, yield and flower quality of Marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) was conducted at Main Experiment Station, Faculty of Agriculture & Science and Technology, Integral University, Lucknow (U.P.) in winter season, during the year 2019-20. The experiment was laid out in Factorial Randomized Block Design with three replications comprising nine treatment combinations of three plant spacing (50x40cm, 50x50cm, 50x60cm) three pinching levels (no pinching, pinching at 20 DAT, pinching at 30DAT). The result concluded that the important growth characters were significantly influenced by different plant spacing and pinching treatments tried under this investigation. Plant height was found to be significantly more under the spacing of 50x50 cm and pinching at 30 DAT. Rest of the growth parameters viz., number of branches, plant spread, fresh and dry weight of plant, number of leaves per plant and stem diameter also showed superior performance under wider spacing (50x60) cm. and pinching at 30 DAT. The combination of wider spacing and pinching at 30 DAT was found to be superior for these traits. The pinching treatments had significant effect on flower diameter, pedicel length, days taken for 50% flowering and vase life of cut flowers.