Neeraj Singh Negia and Ajeet Kumar
Abstract
Cycocel and gibberellic acid have been widely used as growth retardants in several ornamental crops. However, a meagre knowledge is available on their use in aromatic crops, particularly geranium (Pelargonium graveolens L.) regarding the vegetative growth and essential oil content under open field situation. Geranium has a wide scope of cultivation under tarai North Indian plains because it can be used as a substitute to Rose oil, and is widely used for aromatherapy worldwide. A two-year investigation (2014-2015) was conducted using Cycocel (500, 1000 and 1500 ppm), Ethrel (300, 600 and 900 ppm) and Gibberellic Acid (100, 200 and 300 ppm). Several vegetative parameters and oil content were examined for each treatment. Results indicated that oil yield was found to be 79.5 kg/hac with CCC 1500 ppm which is considerably higher than the control (49.2 kg/hac). Numbers of leaves were found to be highest (90.5) in the treatment GA3 300 ppm. Other parameters, like plant height (56.92 cm), stem thickness (9.91 cm) and length of side shoots (31.91) were recorded maximum with treatment GA3 300 ppm during all the stages of crop while plant spread (69.98) was recorded maximum with treatment CCC 1500 ppm and number of side shoots per plant (12.24) were recorded maximum in the treatment ethephon 900 ppm. On the basis of present studies, it could be concluded that under prevalent climatic conditions of Uttarakhand tarai region, GA3 300 ppm can be used to obtain optimum herbage yield while growth regulator CCC 1500 ppm is the best in terms of higher and economic yield of essential oil of geranium.