HortFlora Research Spectrum

185-191

Authors: B. M. Bhardwajand Sukhdev Singh

Deteriorating air quality is peril to human health in urban areas. Vehicular traffic is the major contributor to air pollution in cities. Street trees, being nearest to the source, can effectively reduce pollutants from ambient air. Pollution tolerant species can be more effective in this process with minimal physiological damage to their system. Pollution tolerance of the abundant street tree species in Ludhiana was studied and most of them were found to have intermediate tolerance. 17.27 per cent of the trees were tolerant and 20.4 per cent were sensitive. The most abundant species, Alstonia scholaris was sensitive to air pollution and can be used as indicator. More number of pollution tolerant species should be planted in industrial and commercial areas which have higher pollution load.

200-203

Authors: J. S. Brar, H. S. Dhaliwal, M. S. Gill and Savreet Khehra

: Significant reduction in vegetative growth with increased severity of heading back was recorded in all years of observations. Although, the vegetative growth of senile (control) trees was remained highest and almost similar in all years of observations, but, among headed back plants, severely headed back (1.5 m) trees exhibited smaller canopies followed by 2.0 m and 2.5 m, respectively. The intensity of pruning also had significant effect on vegetative growth of trees. During the initial years, the canopy volume was decreased with the severity of pruning with minimum canopy volume in trees pruned at 75 % intensity in all levels of heading back. Un-pruned headed back plants exhibited higher canopy volume. The headed back plants exhibited about 50 per cent, 40 per cent and 30 per cent reduction in tree canopy volume in 1.5 m, 2.0 m and 2.5 m headed back trees as compared to un-headed back (senile trees) up to fifth years of rejuvenation, respectively.

209-213

Authors: Sukhpreet Kaur and Poonam Aggarwal

A technique for development of ready-to-fry dehydrated potato snack premix incorporating potato flour, rice flour and various spices was standardized. The prepared dehydrated potato snack premix was packed in LDPE bags and stored at room temperature for a period of 6 months to study the shelf-life and quality attributes of the prepared product. The physicochemical parameters including ash content, protein content, Free fatty acids and peroxide value of dehydrated premix remained unaffected during storage up to six months with the exception of moisture which increased significantly (p < 0.05) during storage. Slight but significant (p < 0.05) reductions in bioactive components including total phenolics and total antioxidant activity of dehydrated snack premix occurred during storage. The ready to eat fried potato snack prepared from dehydrated premix was found to be highly acceptable for up to 6 months of storage without any change in sensory quality.

220-223

Authors: Khushboo Kathayat, Anita Singh and Monisha Rawat

The present investigation was conducted during 2012 at Vegetable Research Centre, Pantnagar, U.S.Nagar, Uttarakhand. The field experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with 29 genotypes along with two checks in three replications. Genetic variability was studied for 17 quantitative characters. The results revealed significant differences among the genotypes for all the characters. High genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variations were observed for number of fruit clusters per plant (49.84 and 51.16, respectively) and lowest for days to first fruit picking (1.51 and 1.41 respectively). Heritability was found low for days to first fruit picking (0.13%) and high for number of fruit clusters per plant (100%). High genetic advance was observed for 1000 seed weight (484.88) whereas lowest for fruit diameter (0.24). Genotypic correlation coefficient was higher than phenotypic correlation coefficient.

230-235

Authors: A.V. Barad, Nilima Bhosale and Pooja Maheta

The recently introduced under cultivation plant species Solidago canadensis L. is commonly known as ‘Goldenrod’ belongs to family Asteraceae. It is a perennial in nature and unexploited flower crop cultivated in limited areas for its flower stalks. Now a day farmers are growing this crop commercially in a limited area. The trial was conducted to evaluate the nitrogen levels and type of cuttings during two seasons (summer and rainy) with six nitrogen levels (0, 50, 100, 150, 200 and 250 kg N/ha). The nitrogen was applied once during main harvest. Main harvest had pronounced effect on vegetative parameters during summer and rainy plantings except number of suckers and fresh weight of plant, which was higher during both plantings. While earliest flowering (80.20 days) was observed in ratoon harvesting during summer planting. While, under rainy planting the main harvest provided more number of panicles per plant and per hectare. The application of 250 kg N/ha had pronounced effect on vegetative growth parameters which had increased all vegetative growth parameters. Nitrogen at 250 kg N/ha produced highest longevity of inflorescence, yield of panicles per plant and per hectare during summer and rainy planting, respectively Earliest flowering was found at 200 kg N/ha (73.70 days) during summer and at 250 kg N/ha (98.10 days) during rainy season

241-244

Authors: L. B. Basavaraj, D. G. Vilas and R. Vijayakumar

The present investigation was conducted to elucidate the genetic characters viz. variability and heritability between yield and yield components of different tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) genotypes. Eighteen genotypes including released varieties, landraces and germplasms were used in this investigation for assessment of quality, yield and yield components. The experiment was conducted during summer; 2013-14 at field of Department Vegetable Science, K.R.C. College of Horticulture, Arabhavi, Belagavi district Karnataka, India. Data on morphological characters were recorded from mean value of five randomly selected plants in each genotype. The genotypes exhibited a wide range of variability for all the characters studied. Analysis of variance showed significant variation among the genotypes for all tested characters. Phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was higher than genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) for all the characters studied. Days to first fruit maturity showed the highest genotypic and phenotypic variance (3427.10and 6531.93) whereas TSS (Brix) showed the lowest ones (0.55 and 0.63). High genotypic variance was observed for most of the characters indicating more contribution of genetic component for the total variation. Genotypic coefficient of variations (GCV) and phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) were highest for yield/ha (341.89 and 323.12), whereas the lowest ones were for days to first flowering (5.82 and 7.21). Higher GCV and PVC were recorded for most of the characters indicating higher magnitude of variability for these characters. The highest heritability was recorded for yield/ha (96.34%), while the lowest was for plant height (45.30%). High heritability (broad senses) estimates were observed for all the tested characters indicating that these characters are controlled by additive genes action which can be improved by simple selection.

250-254

Authors: Surya Narayan , Vijai Kumar and Surendra Singh

Five bio-pesticides viz., Trichoderma, Aspergillus, Penicillium, VAM and Biodynamic culture were tried to find out their lethal effects on muskmelon wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. melonis when applied through soil. Trichoderma and Biodynamic culture at 5% concentration (w/w) were effective as these significantly reduced the wilt incidence with improved clinical aspects. Least plumule decay was observed with Trichoderma treatment. Similarly, seedling and plant mortality, flower and fruit set and fruit yield parameters were significantly better with Trichoderma treatment. Other better results were observed in Biodynamic culture, VAM, Penicillium and Aspergillus, respectively. All the treatments were found significantly superior over control. Precisely, muskmelon wilt can be effectively controlled through soil application of Trichoderma fungus @ 5% concentration.

260-263

Authors: Rashmi Nigam and Joginder Singh

The present investigation was carried out on cowpea variety IFC-901, to study the efficacy of doses of bioagents on nodulation of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp) in pot condition consecutively for three years. In terms of nodulation status, the pooled data of three year revealed that all the treatments were significantly superior in increasing the nodules/plant as compared to control. Number of nodules was higher when the treatments were given with Trichoderma species. T. harzianum recorded the best results in increasing the number of nodules against M. phaseolina, R. solani and F. oxysporum infested plants. The study revealed that 15 g dose was most effective for all bioagents.

268-272

Authors: Rinchan Dolkar, M. B. Madalageri and G. Manjunath

Character association and path analysis in twelve advanced breeding lines of chilli was studied for 16 important traits. The phenotypic and genotypic association of fruit yield was significantly positive with per cent fruit set, number of fruits/plant, number of secondary branches/plant, plant height, fruit weight, total fruit chlorophyll content, pericarp weight and number of primary branches at both genotypic and phenotypic level. However, days to first flowering and days to 50 per cent flowering showed negative and significant correlation with total yield. The genotypic and phenotypic path coefficient revealed that total green chilli yield had high direct positive effect from number of fruit / plant and pericarp weight. So selection done based on number of fruits/plant and pericarp weight would be rewarding.

277-281

Authors: Jitendra Singh, P.S.Chauhan, Kavita A., Prerak Bhatnagar and R.R.Meena

The world over there is heavy reliance on three crops—rice, wheat and maize to fulfill dietary energy requirement of the mankind. There are many other crops of promise which can be utilized to share the dominating reliance on these crops. Jackfruit is one of them. Its ripe fruits contain 22.4–24 per cent carbohydrates and are rich source of it. They contain 0.8 per cent mineral matter. The seeds containing 32.6–38.4 per cent carbohydrates are richer than fruits. Their mineral matter content is 1.2–3.5 per cent and are hence better than fruits in this regard. Of the total weight of fruits, pulp constitutes about 30 per cent. It indicates good proportion of edible mass of fruits. The fruits can be hence popularized as one of the food crops of high utility. It can be grown on marigold soil with less input. It can go as one of the components in agr/horti based farming system under agroforestry.

285-287

Authors: Mukesh Kumar

An experiment was conducted with 53 garlic cultivars at Horticultural Research Centre (HRC) of SVPUA&T, Meerut, UP, India during the year 2013-14. Results on different growth characters showed that cultivar Roshni Mota exhibited the maximum plant height and Bhima Omkar gave maximum number of leaves per plant while cultivar CL Lamba produced maximum leaf length and cultivar PG-20 resulted in maximum leaf width. In regards to the yield characters, PG-20 gave maximum bulb weight, while Jawa exhibited maximum bulb diameter and clove weight, while cultivar F-2-R gave maximum number of cloves per bulb.

291-292

Authors: G. R. Kishore

A field trial with three levels of each of nitrogen, phosphorus and potash (50, 100 and 200 Kg/ha) by following a randomized block design was carried out at C.C.R. (P.G) College, Muzaffarnagar on tuberose cv. Single. The results revealed that application of higher dose of nitrogen resulted in profuse growth, while the doses of phosphorus and potash could not show significant differences in traits studied. Therefore, a fertilizer dose of 200kg, 100kg and 200 kg/ha of nitrogen, phosphorus and potash, respectively may be recommended for profitable cultivation of tuberose.