Influence of Humic Acid and Vermicompost on Vegetative and Flowering Performances of African Marigold cv. Seracole in Indo-Gangetic Plains of West Bengal

Abstract

The present investigation was performed in Horticultural Research Station, Mondouri, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Nadia, West Bengal during 2017 to 2018 to assess the best dose of humic acid and vermicompost combination for African marigold. The experiment was designed in Randomised Block Design (RBD) with three replications. There were four concentrations of humic acid extracts (0.5 g/l, 1.0 g/l, 1.5 g/l and 2 g/l) applied as a foliar spray in combination with basal doses of vermicompost (1 kg/m2 and 2 kg/m2). All the parameters showed significant differences regarding vegetative, flowering as well as quality parameters. The results indicated that foliar spray with 1.5 g/l of humic acid extract along with 2 kg/m2 vermicompost significantly increased plant height (54.54 cm), number of primary branches (7.21), flower diameter (7.44 cm), fresh weight & dry weight of flower (9.06 g & 1.2 g respectively), number of flowers per plant (84.16), yield per hectare (47.01 tons/ha) as well as the quality parameters. So, among the nine treatments, T8 (Humic acid 1.5 g/l + 2 kg vermicompost/m2) was the best combination for improving plant growth, yield and quality of African marigold in the Indo-Gangetic plains of West Bengal.

Response of humic acid and gibberellic acid application on flowering and yield of summer African marigold

“…The increase in diameter of fully opened flower might be due to foliar application of humic acid helps to chelate or bind to nutrients in the soil, which helps to more available of nutrient uptake, when assess to sufficient nutrient they increase the diameter of flower and more vibrant flower. Similar finding was observed from Ahsan et al (2012) [2] in tuberose, Ameena (2018) [3] in calendula, Gawade et al (2019) [14] in chrysanthemum and Muhammad et al (2017) [26] , Sendhilnathan et al (2019) [32] and Ghosh et al (2022) [16] in marigold.…”

“…Jawaharlal et al (2013) [19] , Khobragade et al (2017) [23] , Muhammad et al (2017) [26] , Gawade et al (2019) [14] , Sendhilnathan et al (2019) [32] , Murugan et al (2019) [27] . Das et al (2020) [10] and Ghosh et al (2022) [16] in marigold.…”