tailieunhanh - Evaluation of African marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) in summer rice fallows of Wayanad, India

African marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) is a herbaceous annual flowering plant belonging to family Asteraceae. Apart from its popular use in landscape gardening and garland making, it is now gaining popularity as a natural source of food colour. It is found in different colour shades of yellow and orange with different fragrance. A study was conducted in summer rice fallows of Wayanad during 2016-17 to evaluate the performance of 3 hybrids of marigold based on vegetative, flowering and yield characters. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with 5 replications and 16 plants per replication. As per the observations taken at vegetative stage, the maximum height was observed in Garland Orange ( cm). The hybrid with the highest plant spread and number of branches gave the highest flower yield. Garland Orange exhibited the highest plant spread ( cm, cm, 49. 49 cm) and number of primary branches (, , ) at 30, 60 and 90 days after transplanting. At the flowering stage, the minimum number of days taken for 50 per cent of flowering ( days) was observed in Maxima Yellow which is on par with Garland Orange ( days). The yield parameter, such as number of flowers per plant was highest in Maxima Yellow () followed by Inca Yellow (). The highest individual flower weight of g was reported in Garland orange. Yield per plant ( g) and Yield per plot ( kg) was maximum in Garland Orange followed by Inca yellow ( g and kg, respectively). Among the 3 hybrids, Garland Orange performed better in the humid subtropical region of Wayanad followed by the yellow hybrid, Inca Yellow. | Evaluation of African marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) in summer rice fallows of Wayanad, India