Abstract

Gibberellic acid (GA₃) is a naturally occurring growth hormone which controls the extremely important aspects of plant growth through regulation of several growth processes such as seed germination, stem elongation, uniform flowering, and increased number of flowers. Exogenous application of GA₃ hastens the vegetative and reproductive growth of plants. The current study evaluated the effectiveness of GA₃ applied as foliar application for enhanced vegetative and reproductive growth of okra. First foliar application of GA₃ (100 mg Kg^-1) was performed after 3 weeks from sowing while next three applications with regular interval of one week. Results revealed that the increase in number of foliar application of GA₃ substantially improved the vegetative as well as reproductive growth of okra comparing to control plants. It was found that application at different growth stages of okra predominantly boosted the stem elongation, number of leaves per plant, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, seed weight and seed yield. Therefore it can be concluded that foliar application of GA₃ may be an effective strategy for maximizing the growth and yield of okra.

Key words: Gibberellic acid (GA₃), okra, plant height, vegetative growth, reproductive growth.