Effect of Pruning and Paclobutrazol Application on Off Season Production of Jasmine (Jasminum sambac L.)

An experiment for confirming effect of pruning and paclobutrazol application on Jasminum sambac was performed under off season condition during the month of September to February at Department of Floriculture and Landscaping,
Horticultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. The experiment was laid
out in Randomized Block design with three replications. Pruning along with application of paclobutrazol at 100, 200 and 300 ppm were applied as soil drenching, 25, 50 and 75 ppm were applied as foliar spraying and 25 + 10, 50 + 15, 75 + 20
ppm were applied as soil drenching + foliar spraying and control (pruning + without paclobutrazol application). The
experiment reveled that pruning and paclobutrazol as soil drenching was effective plant growth retardant by reducing
plant height (82.77 cm), plant spread (E-W 95.66 cm, N-S 84.64 cm), intermodal length (3.78 cm) and leaf area (18.87
cm2) and increases the flowering characters viz., number of cymes plant-1 (124.44), number of flower buds plant-1 (706.6) and estimated yield acre-1 (380.95 kg). At higher concentration of paclobutrazol by soil drench method, the vegetative growth was plummeting and as a consequence increased yield was obtained. Thus, paclobutrazol has a strong tendency to increase flower buds production by altering the above mentioned parameters significantly.