FIELD ASSESSMENT OF GROWTH REGULATORS ON YIELD AND ECONOMICS OF STRAWBERRY: A SOUTH GUJARAT PERSPECTIVE.

Strawberry fruit production needs better and more efficient control of all agricultural inputs used in its cultivation. Otherwise, a sufficient return is difficult to obtain. As a result, some growth-regulating compounds can be used at specific periods of growth to increase yield potential. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design (RBD) with nine treatments viz., T₁= 50 mg l^-1 NAA, T₂= 75 mg l^-1 NAA, T₃=100 mg l^-1 NAA, T₄= 125 mg l^-1 NAA, T₅=50 mg l^-1 GA₃, T₆ = 75 mg l^-1 GA₃, T₇ = 100 mg l^-1 GA₃, T₈ = 125 mg l-1 GA3 and T₉ = No spray (Control), which were replicated thrice. Among different application of plant growth regulator, 100 mg l^-1 GA₃ performed significantly superior over other treatment with respect to percentage of marketable fruit (85.73%), marketable fruit yield (108.95 q/ha), total yield (117.15 q/ha), net income (10,79,717 Rs/ha) and BCR (2.42) with minimum percentage of non-marketable fruit (14.27%) and non-marketable fruit yield (8.19 q/ha), whereas highest fruit set (61.47%) was observed in 125 mg l^-1 NAA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]