Effect of gibberellic acid treatment on growth and development of Veronica cultivars

Abstract

Gibberellic acid plays an important role in the plant’s growth and development. It has been found to be the best in promoting vegetative growth and flowering attributes in flowering crops. With such its profound background and multi advantageous attributes it confers to plants; an experiment was conducted at Makerere University Agricultural Institute Kabanyolo to understand the effect of gibberellic acid treatment on growth and development of Veronica longifolia. Veronica is a summer flower grown as cut flowers to be used as filler flowers in floral designs. The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized block design with 3 replicates. Gibberellic acid was applied in form of a foliar spray varying the concentrations (0ml, 2ml, 4ml and 6ml). Gibberellic acid was applied one week after pinching at 2 nodes using a hand spray. Data collected include plant height, leaf number, internode length, days to flowering, number of flower stems, stem diameter and flower head length. Vegetative parameters were generally enhanced by gibberellic acid application but at 4ml of gibberellic acid concentration gave the maximum performance of vegetative growth. Control plants (0ml 0f GA3) were the lowest performers in both growth and development parameter though they gave the maximum stem diameter.