Abstract

Plants of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) cv. Pusa Ruby were sprayed with an aqueous solution of kinetin at 0, 10, 50, 100 and 200 ppm. This biore- gulant increased the linear growth at all the used concentrations and stimulated the growth of lateral branches up to a concentration of 100 ppm and had no significant influence at 200 ppm. Kinetin increased the, number of leaves per plant and their area at 10-200 ppm. Quantitative promotion in flowering was observed in plants treated with kinetin. Application of kinetin enhanced the yield of fruits. Kinetin also increased juice, total soluble solids, sugars, protein and ascorbic acid contents of fruits but did not affect the acidity in tomato.

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