Pre-sowing Seed treatment and foliar Application of gibberellic acid Improve seed and fibre yield by inducing net photosynthetic rate and carbonic anhydrase activity of linseed genotypes
Journal Article
Publication Online URL:
Issue Number:
1
Volume Number:
3
Pages:
34 to 38
Publication Abstract:
Linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.) is an important oilseed and fibre crop. However, the production of linseed crop is unable to keep pace with the increasing demand of linseed products. Under these circumstances, the best strategy for dual-purpose linseed would be to increase the height of the plant and to improve seed weight, a task which may prove simpler than achieving the synchronization of seed and fibre maturity. To achieve this, the present work was carried out with an aim to find out whether the application of gibberellic acid (GA3) could improve the performance of linseed crop. The experiment consisted of three GA3 treatments, viz. 0, 10-8 and 10-6 M, with each treatment consisting of a pre-sowing seed treatment followed by foliar spray on plants raised from the treated seeds of five newly released genotypes of linseed namely ‘Laxmi 27’, ‘Parvati’, ‘Rashmi’, ‘Shekhar’ and ‘Shubhra’. Crop performance was assessed in terms of growth characteristics, physiological and biochemical parameters at 60 and 75 DAS and yield and quality characteristics at harvest. Pre-sowing seed and foliar treatment with GA3 at 10-6 M proved best for most of the parameters studied. This treatment enhanced, for example, dry weight per plant by 40.5% and PN by 12.2% at 75 DAS and seed yield per plant by 24.7%, oil yield per plant by 27.1% and fibre yield per plant by 55.9% at harvest as compared with 0 M GA3 (i.e. the control). However, GA3 treatments increased lodging, with 10-6 M GA3 by 43.7% than the control. The data revealed that genotypes differed critically with regard to parameters studied. Among the genotypes tested ‘Shubhra’ performed best while ‘Laxmi 27’ worst.