International Journal of Horticulture, 2017, Vol.7, No.21, 172-179
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should be taken 90 days after planting to boost tillering. Humic substances originate from chemical and biological
degradation of plant and animal residues and from synthetic activities of microorganisms (Schnitzer, 1991). Coal
is also found to produce humus matter on degradation. Peat and lignite are reported to have higher content of
humic acid. The Neyveli lignite has the humic acid content of 50 to 60 per cent. Humic substances make up a
large portion of the dark matter in humus and consist of heterogenous mixtures of transformed biomolecules exhibiting
a supramolecular structure, which can be separated in their small molecular components by sequential chemical
fractionation (Fiorentino et al., 2006). According to El-Nemr et al. (2012) application of humic acid @ 3 g per litre
as foliar spray recorded the increased plant height, number of leaves and stems per plant, fresh weights of leaves
per plant as well as yield in cucumber.
2 Material and Methods
The present experiment consisted of sixteen treatment combinations of two level of harvest height (L
1
-15 cm and
L
2
- 30 cm), two harvest intervals (H
1
-2 months and H
2
-3 months) and four levels of bio-stimulants (N
1
– 0.25 per
cent ZnSO
4
, N
2
– 0.25 per cent FeSO
4
, N
3
– 2 per cent seaweed extract and N
4
– 0.3 per cent humic acid) were
randomly allocated in split-split plot design replicated three times. Biometrical observations vis., plant height
(cm), number of secondary branches, leaflet length (cm), leaflet width (cm), leaf yield per plant (g) and estimated
leaf yield per hectare (kg) were taken from each treatment and replication. The data were subjected to statistical
analysis as suggested by Panse and Sukhatme (1985).
3 Results
The results of the study on effect of harvesting techniques (harvest height and harvest intervals) and
bio-stimulants on growth and leaf yield of curry leaf have shown that the interaction between pruning levels x
harvest intervals x application of foliar nutrients had significant effect on biometrical observation and results are
presented in the Table 1, Table 2, Table 3, Table 4, Table 5, Table 6, Table 7, Table 8, Table 9, Table 10 and
Figure 1.
Table 1 Effect of pruning techniques and foliar nutrients on plant height (cm) in curry leaf at first harvest
Treatments
L
1
L
2
P X N
H
1
H
2
Mean
H
1
H
2
Mean
H
1
H
2
Mean
N
1
52.40
98.54
75.47
54.12
99.85
76.99
53.26
99.20
76.23
N
2
55.13
108.94
82.04
56.44
116.08
86.26
55.79
112.51
84.15
N
3
67.33
116.98
92.16
68.37
117.67
93.02
67.85
117.33
92.59
N
4
72.44
118.90
95.67
78.67
127.84
103.26
75.56
123.37
99.46
Mean
61.83
110.84
86.33
64.40
115.36
89.88
63.11
113.10
88.11
L
H
N
LXH
LX N
H X N
L X H X N
SE (d)
0.196
0.444
0.050
0.486
0.206
0.448
0.453
CD (0.05)
0.846
1.230
0.104
1.470
0.846
1.230
1.240
Table 2 Effect of pruning techniques and foliar nutrients on plant height (cm) in curry leaf at second harvest
Treatments
L
1
L
2
P X N
H
1
H
2
Mean
H
1
H
2
Mean
H
1
H
2
Mean
N
1
50.35
94.69
72.52
52.00
95.96
73.98
51.18
95.33
73.25
N
2
52.97
104.69
78.83
54.24
111.55
82.90
53.61
108.12
80.86
N
3
62.19
114.32
88.26
63.94
114.75
89.35
63.07
114.54
88.80
N
4
68.87
116.35
92.61
73.51
124.78
99.15
71.19
120.57
95.88
Mean
58.60
107.51
83.05
60.92
111.76
86.34
59.76
109.64
84.70
L
H
N
LXH
LX N
H X N
L X H X N
SE (d)
0.184
0.443
0.053
0.480
0.195
0.447
0.452
CD (0.05)
0.793
1.230
0.110
0.195
0.793
1.230
1.240
