Effect of Plant Growth Regulators on Fruit Quality of Cape Gooseberry (Physalis peruviana L.) cv. ALIGARH

An investigation was carried out in the Department of Horticulture, Khalsa College, Amritsar during the year 2010-11 to study the effect of plant growth regulators (NAA and GA₃) on fruit quality of Cape gooseberry under Punjab conditions. In the trial, seven treatments as NAA (5, 10 and 15 ppm), GA₃ (10, 15 and 20 ppm) and control were applied immediately after fruit set and that were replicated four times. A unit of 8 plants per plot comprised one replication. GA₃ 20 ppm proved to be highly effective in enhancing the fruit size (2.3 cm x 2.56 cm), fruit weight (9.23 g), fruit volume (9.78 cc), TSS (12.77 %), reducing sugars (3.19 %), total sugars (9.2 %) and minimizing the acid contents (0.863 %) of fruits of Cape gooseberry. The highest concentration of NAA i.e. 15 ppm was more effective in improving these characteristics than minimum concentration of GA₃ i.e. 10 ppm.