Abstract

                                An experiment was conducted at the Horticultural College and Research Institute for Women Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and Coimbatore during 2017-2018 to study the effect of micronutrients and plant growth regulators on growth, flower yield, pigment content and keeping quality of marigold (Tagetes erecta L). The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Block Design (RBD) with three replications and 16 treatments. The study revealed that application of micronutrients mixture + GA3 100 ppm (T2) showed the highest plant height (86.08 cm), the highest internodal length (6.73 cm) and a maximum number of branches (15.97) at 90 days after transplanting over the absolute control. Among the floral parameters, the earliest days to first flower bud appearance (51.61 days), days to first flowering (66.95 days), the longest duration of flowering (50.50 days), crop duration (144.40 days), maximum number of flowers per plant (69.19), the highest flower diameter (7.00 cm), flower weight (15.19 g), flower stalk length (8.94 cm), flower stalk girth (5.30 mm) as well as highest flower yield per plant (439.33 g) and longest shelf life of flower (6.49 days) were recorded with treatment T2-micronutrients mixture + GA3 100 ppm over the absolute control.

Key words : : Marigold, Flowering attributes, Yield, Micronutrients, Plant growth regulators.