Efficacy of foliar feeding of plant bioregulators on yield attributes and economic analysis of acid lime

Abstract

The current study was done at the Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar, during 2019–2020 and 2020–2021. Acid lime, scientifically known as Citrus aurantifolia Swingle, is a member of the Rutaceae family. It has its origins in India and possesses a chromosomal count of 2n=18. Citrus fruits are an important crop cultivated commercially in over 50 nations worldwide. Kagzi lime is one of the important citrus crop occupying more than 10 per cent of the total area under citrus cultivation in India. The objective of this research was to assess the most appropriate plant bioregulator in terms of fruit productivity and economics. This investigation found that the usage of growth regulators, such as 2,4-D (at 10 and 20 ppm), GA₃ (at 5 and 10 ppm) , NAA (at 100 and 200 ppm) , SA (at 100 and 200 ppm), Spermidine (at 0.001 mM and 0.002 mM), Putrescine (at 0.01 mM and 0.02 mM), Brassinosteroid (at 0.1 ppm and 0.5 ppm) and an untreated control, had an impact on the production characteristics of acid lime Kuliana local. The data on crop productivity and its characteristics were documented throughout the corresponding seasons in both years. Plant bioregulators with the highest efficacy for increasing fruit production were discovered by evaluating the performance of different growth characteristics. The variance in plant bioregulators has a significant impact on yield. Brassinolide exhibited the most significant impact on number of fruits per tree, with an average number of 379.02 fruits. Additionally, it resulted in a higher yield of 12.46 kg per tree. The minimum days to flower bud initiation (41.64), days to 50 % flowering (47.96), maximum number of flowers per cluster (21.47), number of flower clusters per tree (39.89) and fruit weight (33.71 g) were also observed as significant related to brassinosteroid application compared to other treatments. Minimum number of seeds per fruit (5.97) was seen in the treatment of GA₃ at 10 ppm. There was no significant difference among the treatments on peel thickness. Furthermore, the use of brassinosteroids led to a higher benefit-cost ratio of 2.96 compared to the remaining treatments and the untreated control group in both seasons of the study. Our findings demonstrated that the treatment with a brassinosteroid known as Brassinolide yielded the greatest outcomes in terms of yield attributes for acid lime.