HortFlora Research Spectrum

310-314

Authors: P. S. Kashyap, Alka Verma and Stefan Siebert

In India, agriculture is driven by small and marginal farmers mostly and hence effective land utilization is an only way to get more harvest and simultaneously targeting important upcoming environmental problems, including reduced soil fertility and reduced biodiversity. Intercropping of two or more crops is an age old practice in India especially under rain fed conditions. The most common advantage of intercropping is to produce a greater yield on a given piece of land by achieving more efficient use of the available growth resources that would otherwise not be utilized by each single crop grown alone. Cereals, oil seeds, legumes, cash crops like sugar cane and horticultural crops; all can be efficiently used in intercropping for taking advantage of ecological balance, more utilization of resources, increasing the quantity and quality of harvest and reducing damage by pests, diseases and weeds simultaneously.

323-328

Authors: Parminder Singh and R.K. Dubey

Studies were conducted to optimize planting distance for frond production in Boston fern [Nephrolepis exaltata (L.) Schott]. The suckers were planted at a spacing of 30 x 30 cm, 30 x 45 cm, 45 x 45 cm, 45 x 60 cm and 60 x 60 cm, in the month of March, 2012 under net house conditions which provided 50 per cent shading. Planting density had significant effect on plant spread, frond length, mean lamina length and leaf area. Increase in planting density (30 x 30 cm) led to increase in frond production per unit area but with regard to the production per plant, it was at par in all the spacings where row to row distance was 45 cm i.e. 45 x 30 cm, 45 x 45 cm and 45 x 60 cm. Number of fronds per plant increased as the plants were widely spaced, highest being recorded at 60 x 60 cm. The fronds produced from wider spaced plants were of superior quality in terms of length and strength of the stem. Quality parameters, viz.length of longest frond as well as fresh and dry weights of fronds was observed to be higher with closer spacing. Frond production per plot and yield per hectare exhibited significant increase with decreasing plant spacing. Planting density did not affect longevity of the fronds. Considering the yield of fronds per hectare, cost of production and net return, 30 x 45cm spacing is recommended for the cultivation of Boston fern.

334-338

Authors: Smaranika Mohanta and Joydip Mandal

An experiment was conducted at Horticulture Farm of Institute of Agriculture, Visva-Bharati, Sriniketan (West Bengal) to find out the optimum planting dates and cultivars of onion suitable for kharif season in this region. The treatments consisted of four dates of planting (15th and 30th August and 15th and 30th September) and five cultivars (Agrifound Dark Red, Arka Kalyan, Arka Niketan, Indam Marshal and Red Stone). The experiment was laid out in factorial randomized block design with three replications. There was a significant increase in growth of plants and size of bulbs when planting delayed from August to September. The overall performance of kharif onion in red and laterite belt of West Bengal was highly satisfactory with average bulb yield 171.1q/ha. Data revealed that the cultivar Agrifound Dark Red when planted on 30th September gave superior result in almost all yield parameters and yield.

344-348

Authors: S. Ganesh, M. Kannan and M. Jawaharlal

A green house study was conducted in 2013 to optimize the fertigation schedule for cut chrysanthemum var. Amalfi. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design (RBD) consisting of nine treatments with three replications which included fertilizer levels at 75, 100, 125 and 150 per cent of recommended dose of fertilizers along with foliar spray of 0.2 per cent EDTA chelated micronutrient mixture to each of the fertilizer levels. The results revealed that 75% recommended dose of fertilizers @ 12:3:12g NPK/m2 along with 0.2 % EDTA micronutrient mixture as foliar spray significantly enhanced the growth, physiology and yield parameters. Also increased recommended dose of fertilizers i.e., 100 % per cent improved the total leaf area per plant, soluble protein content, flower diameter, flower stalk length and girth. Though certain flowering parameters were recorded high in 100 % RDF, Yield contributing parameters like plant height, root length and fresh weight, total chlorophyll contents, earliness in flowering, yield/m2 and vase life showed superiority in 75 % RDF along with foliar spray of 0.2 per cent EDTA chelated micronutrient mixture.

353-356

Authors: Nilima Bhosale and A.V. Barad

The present experiment on storage of bulbs of spider lily (Hymenocallis littoralis L.) cv. Local was carried out at Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh during 2011-2012. The experiment consisted of six levels of pre-harvest MH spray with four levels of storage conditions and it was laid out in Factorial Completely Randomized Design (FCRD) with three replications. Pre harvest spray of MH 3000ppm was found to be more effective for reducing weight of bulbs, size of bulbs, physiological loss of weight, sprouting of bulbs and spoil age of spider lily bulb. Similarly, bio chemical parameters like TSS, total sugars, reducing sugar and non reducing sugar were also found better in MH 3000ppm for storage of bulbs. During storage the bulbs should be kept in plastic carets at an ambient temperature having good circulation of air in the store room.

361-364

Authors: K. M. Singh, R. C. Shakywar and M. M. Kumawat

The demonstration programme of bio-control based IPM in potato was carried out at three locations of East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh. Potato variety Kufri Pukhraj was used. The crops were planted at 4th, 10th and 15th November in the Farmer’s practice, untreated control plot and IPM practice, at Jhampani. At Oyan, the crop was planted on 31st October in the Farmer’s practice, 5th November in both untreated control plot and IPM practice and at Sille the crop was planted on 19th, 20th and 20th October in the IPM practice, Farmer’s practice and untreated control plot, respectively. The crop was harvested at 90 days after planting. However, at 50 DAP, no significant difference was observed between the three treatments at Jhampani and between farmer’s practice (4.00%) and control (10.00%) at Sille. Farmer’s practice field recorded significantly lower incidence of late blight than the other two treatments in all the three locations at both 50 and 60 DAP. Highest incidence of the disease (70.07 per cent leaf area damage) was observed in untreated control (Sille) at 60 DAT. IPM practice recorded 20.60, 15.87 and 44.67 per cent leaf area damage at 60 DAP at Jhampani, Oyan and Sille and were significantly lower than the untreated control in their respective locations. The outcome compared with all the locations, Oyan was found better and also significantly superior over rest of the location against bacterial wilt incidence of potato.

369-372

Authors: Chetak Bishnoi, R.K. Sharma and S. Siddiqui

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of different durations of modified atmosphere on bio-chemical parameters and shelf life of guava under ambient conditions. Fruits were packed in perforated polyethylene bags (LDPE) of thickness 300 gauge and then stored at 8ºC in BOD incubator for the periods 1, 2, 3 and 4 days. After respective durations of storage under MA at 8ºC, fruits were removed from MA and packed in CFB and stored at ambient temperature. Fruits were sampled at every day for various bio-chemical pigments of guava. Among different durations of MA storage, the maximum total sugars and reducing sugars was recorded in the fruits stored for 0, 1 and 2 days and minimum in the fruits stored in MA for 4 days. The fruits stored in MA for different durations maintained high phenol contents and recorded maximum phenol in the fruit stored in MA for 4 days and minimum in control fruits. Higher retention of chlorophyll was recorded in the fruits stored in MA for 4 days while lesser carotenoids were recorded in fruit stored in MA for 4 days. Carotenoids content increased and chlorophyll content decreased with the increase in storage period in both the cvs. Hisar Safeda and L-49 (Sardar).

377-379

Authors: R. S. Vedavathi, M. G. Basavanagowda, Ravishankar M. Patil and K. S. Thipanna

Bulbs of Asiatic lily (Lilium spp.) cv. Gironde were planted under open field condition in hill zone of Karnataka (Mudigere) to study the impact of spacing and nitrogen levels on bulb formation and growth. Treatments comprised of three levels of spacing (30x15 cm, 30x30 cm and 40x15 cm) and four levels of nitrogen (0, 100, 150 and 200 kg per ha). The plant spacing of 30x15 cm and 200 kg per ha nitrogen level showed resulting in a significant effect on weight, size and yield of bulb, and weight and number of bulblets per plant, the maximum qualitative and quantitative characteristics of bulbs and bulblets.

383-385

Authors: Gufran Ahmad and S. Saravanan

An experimental was laid out in the CRB Design having 10 treatment and 3 replications. The treatment T9 (10:30:30 NPK + 0.3% Brick pieces + Gravel + Poultry manure) was found to be statistically significant over other treatments which recorded highest plant height (29.61cm), number of leaves (9.69), leaf area (36.11cm2), number of new shoots per plant (4.58), shoot girth (3.16 cm), root length (16.73cm), number of root per plant (20.25), total number of spikes per plant (3.47), number of florets per spike (10.69), spike length (33.91cm), and longevity of spike (42.91 days) under shade net condition.

388-389

Authors: Rajiv Kumar

An experiment was carried out to evaluate seven genotypes of chrysanthemum for flower quality traits at IIHR, Bengaluru from 2010-11 to 2012-13. Significantly wide variation was recorded in all floral traits. Results revealed that maximum number of flowers/plant (81.51) and flowering duration (43.14 days) were recorded in Anmol. Maximum plant height (47.25 cm) and flower diameter (5.03 cm) were recorded in Garden Beauty. However, maximum average weight of flower (2.59 g) and flower yield/plant (131.43 g) were recorded in Autumn Joy. The genotype Winter Queen recorded maximum number of sprays/plant (6.89). On the basis of three years observations, genotypes Winter Queen, Garden Beauty and Autumn Joy found promising for garden display.