INFLUENCE OF ORGANIC MANURES AND GIBBERELLIC ACID ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF STRAWBERRY (Fragaria X ananassa DUCH.)

A field experiment was conducted to study the effect of organic manures and growth regulators on the growth and yield of two varieties of strawberry namely ‘Sweet Charlie’ and ‘Winter Dawn’. Six treatments were taken combining three organic manures viz. Vermicompost @ 3.0 t/ha, Mustard oil cake @ 1.0 t/ha and Neem cake @ 1.0 t/ha and two concentrations of gibberellic acid (GA3) viz. 75 ppm and 100 ppm along with a control. Foliar application of GA3 was carried out at 40 and 60 days after planting whereas organic manures were applied as basal dose. Results of the study suggested that higher doses i.e. 100 ppm of GA3 along with vermicompost exhibited more vegetative growth whereas 75 ppm GA3 resulted in higher fruit set and yield in both the varieties. It was found that vermicompost @ 3.0 t/ha combined with 100 ppm GA3 recorded the highest plant height (24.7 cm and 21.4 cm) and numbers of leaves per plant (46.0 and 68.7) in both Sweet Charlie and Winter Dawn varieties, respectively. Whereas, highest fruit diameter (3.3cm and 3.4cm), fruit length (4.6cm and 4.8cm), fruit weight (18.2 g and 17.9 g), number of fruits per plant (24.6 and 32.0), yield per plant (447.8 g and 572.1 g) and yield per hectare (18.80 t and 24.03 t) were recorded under vermicompost @ 3.0 t/ha in combination with 75 ppm GA3 in both Sweet Charlie and Winter Dawn varieties, respectively. It was observed that Winter Dawn variety produced a 28.0% higher yield as compared to Sweet Charlie under the best treatment i.e. vermicompost @ 3.0 t/ha in combination with 75 ppm GA3