Effect of pinching on yield of African marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) cv. Pusa Narangi Gainda under Andaman conditions

Abstract

An experiment was carried out to study the effect of pinching on flower yield of African marigold cv.Pusa Narangi Gainda at ICAR-CIARI, Port Blair during 2012 and 2013. The experiment consisted of three treatments T1 (Control) –no pinching, T2- Single pinching 20 days after transplanting and T3-double pinching 15 days after single pinching. The results showed that maximum plant spread (47.2 cm), number of branches (13.7), duration of flowering (36.7 days), number of flowers per plant (56.6), size of flower (6.18 cm), weight of single flower (7.08g), flower yield per plant (347.8 g) and seed yield per plant (20.23g) were observed in the double pinching treatment. The flower yield was maximum in double pinching with three times more yield than the control.