Effect of Plant Growth Regulators and Micro-nutrients on Vegetative Growth, Flowering and Yield Attributes of Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.)

The experiment was conducted to observe the effect of plant growth regulators (GA3 and NAA) and micro-nutrients (ZnSO4 and Borax) on vegetative growth, flowering and yield attributes of litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.). ZnSO4 applied @ 0.4% resulted in maximum per cent increase in plant height and canopy spread, i.e. 5.78% and 6.65% respectively. Whereas, application of Borax @ 0.4% exhibited maximum per cent increase in plant girth (8.72%). NAA @ 2.5 ppm was effective in improving the flowering parameters of litchi. With respect to physical parameters of fruit and yield component, application of borax @ 0.4% resulted in maximum fruit set (43.76%), number of fruits per tree (1128.67), fruit yield (25.11 kg/tree), fruit weight (22.24 g), aril weight (15.65 g) and minimum fruit cracking (5.08%). Lowest fruit drop percentage (60.91%) was however caused by application of ZnSO4 @ 0.4%.