Influence of Foliar Application of NAA and Zinc on Yield and Quality Attributes of Guava (Psidium guajava L.) cv. L-49

Abstract

An experiment was carried out at Department of Fruit Science, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture & Technology Meerut (U.P), India during two consecutive years i.e., 2021-22 and 2022-23 to assess the Influence of foliar Spray of NAA and Zinc on growth, flowering, fruiting, yield and quality of Guava (Psidium guajava L.) cv. L-49 under western U.P. conditions. The foliar spray of micronutrients along with plant growth regulators play an important role in manipulating many physiological phenomena, improving the yield and quality and enhanced the productivity of plants by fulfilling the nutritional needs of fruit crops. Twelve treatments viz., three level of NAA (0, 50, and 75 ppm) and four level of Zinc (0, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8 %) with their combinations were used, which were replicated in factorial Randomized Block Design. Results showed NAA @75 ppm (N2) individually registered yield of 53.75 and 53.06 kg/plant the application of Zinc at 0.8 % (Zn3) concentration recorded yield of 53.86 and 53.17 kg/plant. Interactive effect of naphthalene acetic acid and Zinc (N2Zn3) treatments registered yield of 59.56 and 58.81 kg/plant while quality parameter pectin was in the range of 0.79 and 0.80 % with treatment naphthalene acetic acid @75 ppm (N2) and Zinc at 0.8 % (Zn3) individually recorded 0.80 and 0.82 % outperformed the other treatments. The combination could be ideal and recommended for the production of guava in the Indo-Gangetic plains in western India.