An experiment was carried out to study the effect of growth retardants on dwarfing performance of ornamental flowering plants at Adhiparasakthi Horticultural College, Ranipet, Tamil Nadu, India, in 2021. The experiment was laid out in Factorial Completely Randomized Design (FCRD) with 14 treatments and three replications. The experiment includes two ornamental plants(Bougainvillea and Nerium) and two growth retardants viz., paclobutrazol (100ppm, 200 ppm, and 300 ppm as soil drench) and cytosol (500 ppm, 1000 and 1500 ppm).
The results revealed that the application of growth retardants had a positive influence on growth and flowering parameters. The bougainvillea plants treated with 200 ppm of paclobutrazol as soil drench proved superior in respect of growth and flowering parameters viz., plant height (30.23 cm), number of lateral branches (7.25), intermodal length (1.42 cm), stem diameter (11.29 mm), number of leaves (29.35), leaf area (12.42 cm2), plant spread (EW -24.28 cm, NS -21.25), days to flower bud appearance (96.22 days) and number of flowers per plant (45.42). In the case of Nerium, the soil drench of paclobutrazol at 200 ppm resulted better performance for growth and flowering characters viz., plant height (25.25 cm), number of lateral branches (2.32), intermodal length (1.20 cm), stem diameter (11.32 mm), number of leaves (25.08), leaf area (12.83 cm2), plant spread (EW -18.17 cm, NS -15.41 cm), days to flower bud appearance (80.75 days) and number of flowers per plant (28.43).
Hort, Kumaresan. (2023). EFFECT OF GROWTH RETARDANTS ON DWARFING PERFORMANCE OF ORNAMENTAL FLOWERING PLANTS.