STUDIES ON THE EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS ON GROWTH, FLOWERING, SEED YIELD AND QUALITY IN DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF CALENDULA (Calendula officinalis L.)
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Date
2021-10
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UHF,NAUNI
Abstract
ABSTRACT
The present study entitled, “Studies on the effect of environmental conditions on growth,
flowering, seed yield and quality in different varieties of Calendula (Calendula officinalis L.)” was carried
out at three different locations viz., the Experimental Farm, Department of FLA, UHF, Nauni (EC1), Research
Farm, Khaltoo, Department of Seed Science and Technology, UHF, Nauni (EC2) and RHR & TS, Dhaulakuan,
District Sirmaur (EC3) in Himachal Pradesh during 2020-21. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block
Design (factorial) at three different locations with 5 varieties of calendula grown at each location replicated
thrice. The observations were recorded on growth, flowering, seed yield and seed quality parameters. Among
the three different environmental conditions under study, plants that were grown at RHR&TS, Dhaulakuan
(EC3) had performed best with respect to plant height (49.87 cm), days to first flowering (65.27 days), number
of flower heads per plant (74.37), size of flower head (5.74 cm), number of seeded heads per plant (65.35),
number of seeds per head (46.56), number of seeds per plant (2670.96), seed yield per plot (329.37 g), seed
yield per hectare (2470.29 kg), 1000 seed weight (7.33 g), seed germination (82.15), speed of germination
(10.44), seedling length (10.12 cm), seedling dry weight (14.27), seed vigour index-I (834.82), seed vigour
index-II (1187.79) and seed electrical conductivity (0.64 dS/m). Among the varieties, best results w.r.t. plant
height (56.32 cm), earliness to flowering (66.78 days), number of flower heads per plant (120.44) and number
of seeded heads per plant (104.33) were observed in a local strain of Calendula arvensis at all the locations.
However, among the varieties belonging to Calendula Officinalis var. ‘Indian Prince’ had exhibited better
performance w.r.t. plant height (47.58 cm), days to first flowering (69.11 days), number of flower heads per
plant (60.22), number of seeded heads per plant (52.96) and best results among all varieties evaluated with
respect to number of seeds per plant (2509.80). Whereas, size of flower head (6.68 cm), number of seeds per
head (51.93) and 1000 seed weight (8.70 g) var. ‘Creme White’ performed best at all the locations. For yield
parameters as well as for seed quality parameters, var. ‘Indian Prince’ gave better results w.r.t seed yield per
plot (328.33 g), seed yield per hectare (2462.48 kg), seed germination (87.67 %), speed of germination (11.81),
seedling length (10.65 cm), seedling dry weight (16.20 mg), seed vigour index-I (934.53), seed vigour index-II
(1421.87) and seed electrical conductivity (0.51 dS/m) under all the environmental conditions. The interaction,
V5 × EC3 resulted in maximum plant height (65.25 cm), minimum days to flowering (60.60 days), maximum
number of flower heads per plant (134.20) and maximum number of seeded heads per plant (116.33). However,
the interaction V3 × EC3 resulted in maximum number of seeds per plant (2936.87), yield per plot (417.37 g),
yield per hectare (4173.76 Kg), seed germination (90.25 %), speed of germination (14.93), seedling length
(10.96 cm), seedling dry weight (16.98 mg), seed vigour index-I (989.61), seed vigour index-II (1531.98) and
minimum seed electrical conductivity (0.39 dS/m). V2 × EC3 , resulted in maximum size of flower head (7.45
cm), number of seeds per head (57.47) and 1000 seed weight (8.89 g).V2 × EC1 , resulted in maximum duration
of flowering (93.33 days) among the interactions of varieties belonging to Calendula officinalis with different
environmental conditions. Hence, var. ‘Indian Prince’ can be recommended for seed production and var.
‘Creme White’ for the purpose of landscaping.