Dragon fruit (Hylocereus undatus (Haworth) Britton & Rose) is promisingly a new and exotic crop, India has great potential for its cultivation in semiarid tracts. It can be propagated either sexually or asexually by stem cuttings. The sexually propagated seedlings will take 3 or more years for bearing than that of propagated through stem cuttings. The rootings in cuttings of some species occurs without exogenous auxins treatment, but majority do not root easily. An investigation was carried out to study the effect of IBA, NAA and their combinations on rootings in stem cuttings of Dragon fruit at the Department of Horticulture, BBAU, Lucknow during the year 2019-20, in order to standardize the type and concentration of growth regulators for rooting and success rate in stem cuttings. The experiment was laid out by following randomized block design with nine treatments and three replications. The stem cuttings of Dragon fruit treated with IBA, NAA and their combinations result reveals that, length of longest root (21.33 cm), average number of roots per cutting (41.76), diameter of the root cutting (1.38 mm), fresh weight of root cutting (2.22 g) and dry weight of root cutting (0.59 g) was recorded maximum in cutting treated with IBA 4000 ppm. This was probably because of simulative actions of exogenous auxin (IBA) in the formation of new root tips in stem cuttings.

Aims: A trial was conducted to investigate the influence of plant growth regulators on the growth and quality attributes of pineapple fruits. Study Design: The experiment was arranged in a randomized completed block design (RBCD) with three replications using 25 plants per replication. Place and Duration of Study: The experiment was carried out between 2020 and 2021 at the Central Horticultural Experiment Station, Aignia, Bhubaneswar, India. Methodology: The application of PGRs i.e. naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), gibberellic acid (GA), and brassinosteroid (BR) was done at the flower initiation stage. Only water application is done in case of control. Fruits were harvested at the ripe stage and an analysis of different growth and quality parameters were done. Results: The application of naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), and gibberellic acid (GA) significantly improved the yield and quality attributes of pineapple. Application of NAA 200 mgL-1 (T3) was found to be the most effective in enhancing absolute growth rate (2.65 g day-1), fruit weight (1.58 kg), and fruit/crown ratio (6.38). It was also evident that the application of NAA 200 mgL-1 improved fruit quality in terms of soluble solid contents (17.67 oBrix), soluble solid contents to acid ratio (19.49), reducing sugar (3.54%), and total sugar content (12.38%). Higher pulp content (73.89%), pulp-to-peel ratio (3.49), and juice content (54.50%) were also observed with NAA 200 mgL-1. Conclusion: NAA 200 mgL-1 significantly improved fruit growth i.e. fruit weight, fruit-to-crown ratio, and absolute growth rate. It also enhanced the quality attributes of pineapple fruits i.e. pulp content, pulp-to-peel ratio, juice content, pH, soluble solid contents, SSC to acid ratio, reducing sugar, and total sugar content.

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The quality of strawberry is highly hampered by improper crop management, which can only be solved by using different types of mulches. It is very rare in literature, where the different types of mulches are used for the quality assessment. To carry out this new strategy to sustain the quality of strawberry the present study was carried out using various kind of mulches viz., white polythene mulch, yellow polythene mulch, black polythene much, green polythene mulch, news-paper mulch, wood husk mulch, serpat grass mulch, red polythene mulch, jute bag mulch comprised of 10 treatments and 3 replications under the randomized block design. The findings revealed that the application of black plastic mulch significantly increased the total number of fruit (12.67), length of fruit (6.21 cm), width of fruit (4.20 cm), weight of fruit (16.30 g), yield plant-1 (200.10g), yield plot-1 (3.20kg), total soluble solids (11.85%), total sugar (8.58%), reducing sugar (7.90%), non-reducing sugar (1.75%) and vitamin C (45.91 mg 100g-1). It is pertinent to infer that the application of the mulches (either black or yellow) performed and better over control.

Boron plays crucial role in metabolic processes during fruit ripening and in turn ensures better fruit quality. However limited studies have been conducted to assess the influence of boron on fruit quality of dragon fruit. In the present study, the efficacy of boron was investigated on red-fleshed dragon fruit (Selenicereus monacanthus). Four levels of boron (100 mgL-1, 200 mgL-1, 300 mgL-1 and 400 mgL-1) were applied on 7- and 14-day-old flower buds. The highest pollen germinability, seed weight, fruit weight (274.32 ± 36.72g), pulp content (70.80 ± 1.79%) and pulp firmness (2.74 ± 0.18 N) were recorded when B was applied@300 mg L-1 on 7-day old flower bud. The same treatment also manifested higher soluble solid contents (17.42 ± 0.62 °Brix), sugar content, total carbohydrate (15.92 ± 1.12%), protein (1.33±0.11%), ascorbic acid (112.66 ± 4.98 µg/g), betacyanin (32.86±2.52 µg/g), total phenol (95.26 ± 3.72 µg GAE/ 100g), total flavonoid (37.65 ±2.14 mg QE/100g) and anti-oxidative activity (27.71±2.14 mM Fe II/100g). Correlation studies elucidated significant positive influence of pollen germinability on fruit weight, pulp content and pulp firmness. The activities of α-amylase, invertase and sucrose synthase enzymes were significantly upregulated with the application of B 300 mg L-1 on 7-day old flower bud. On the other hand, the activities of cell wall degrading enzymes such as cellulase, polygalacturonase and pectin methyl esterase were reduced with increasing levels of boron. The principal component analysis (PCA) illustrated the maximal proximity of most of the quality attributes with B 300 mgL-1, applied at 7-day old flower bud stage, thus exemplifying it as the best treatment.