Effect of growth promoting substances on growth performance of pre-bearing pomegranate trees

Due to lack of proper management practices for newly planted trees, bearing potential of young trees is decreased that ultimately reduces the yield. To mitigate this problem an experiment to study the affect of growth promoting substances on growth performance of pre-bearing pomegranate trees was conducted at the main garden of Department of Horticulture, Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, Maharashtra during 2013–2014. The experiment was laid out with eleven treatments of growth promoting substances viz T₁(1% KNO₃), T₂(2% KNO₃), T₃(5% Humic acid), T₄(10% Humic acid), T₅(NAA 25 ppm), T₆(NAA 50 ppm), T₇(0.5% Urea), T₈(1% Urea), T₉(GA₃25 ppm), T₁₀(GA₃50 ppm) and T₁₁(Control) used at different concentrations. Different growth observations like plant height (cm), stem diameter (cm), length of shoot (cm), primary branches, secondary branches, plant spread (cm), leaf area (cm²), number of growth flushes per plant, number of leaves per flush per plant, chlorophyll content (mg/g) were studied at monthly interval. It was found that 1 per cent urea treatment resulted in maximum plant height, stem diameter, shoot length, plant spread and chlorophyll content.