The study was carried out at the Horticulture Research Centre (HRC) Fruit Orchard, Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Jamalpur, Bangladesh, during 2024–2025 to assess the influence of Plant Growth Regulator (PGR) (GA₃) on flowering and yield attributes of litchi. The age of Litchi plants were 14–15 years old.The treatments are T₁ =  GA₃@ 50 mg/L on panicle before flower opening, T₂ =  GA₃@ 50 mg/L at 15 days after fruit set, T₃ =  GA₃@ 50 mg/L at 21 days after fruit set, T₄ =  GA₃@ 50 mg/L at 28 days after fruit set, T₅ =  GA₃@ 100 mg/L on panicle before flower opening, T₆ =  GA₃@ 100 mg/L at 15 days after fruit set , T₇ =  GA₃@ 100 mg/L at 21 days after fruit set, T₈ =  GA₃@ 100 mg/L at 28 days after fruit set and T₉ =  Control (water spray only). All treatments were applied after flowering. The flowering date of studied trees varied from 20.02.2025 to 16.03.2025. The early flowering occurred in the control treatment (T₉) and late flowering was exhibited in T₇ treatment. Among nine treatments, four treatments flowered in February 2025 and five treatments in March 2025. As a consequence, GA₃ was found to be significant in case of all parameters. The T₁ treatment induced significantly maximum (935) number of fruits per plant closely followed by T₄ treatment (680), T₂ treatment (670) and the minimum (150) in the T₉ treatment. Maximum (18.80 g) individual fruit weight was found in T₇ treatment closely followed by treatments T₃& T₈ (18.60 g) and minimum (14.50 g) in control treatment (T₉). Maximum fruit weight/plant (15.39 kg) was noted in T₁ treatment followed by T₄ treatment (12.25 kg), T₂ treatment (11.97 kg) and lowest fruit weight/plant (2.79 kg) in control treatment (T₉). Percentage of rotted fruit ranged from 20.12% to 46.76% by the effect of GA₃ application. The highest rotted fruit was found in the control treatment (T₉) and minimum (20.12%) in T₇ treatment. Percentage of cracked fruit ranged from 8.68% to 54.62% by the effect of GA₃ application. Fruit cracking of Litchi is 8.68% in T₈ treatment followed by T₂ treatment 8.76% was found to be significantly lowest, respectively. According to particular studies, GA₃ can lower the proportion of fruit cracking. By the effect of GA₃, T₄ treatment induced significantly minimum (1.39 g) aril weight at harvesting closely followed by T₈ treatment (2.02 g). The maximum (4 g) aril weight at harvesting was presented with control (T₉). The highest TSS (19%) observed in the T₄ treatment and lowest (14%) in the T₃, T₆ and T₉(control) treatments. An increase in total soluble solids could indicate that GA₃ facilitates the transport of sugars across membranes.

Keywords: Litchi, Plant Growth Regulator (PGR), GA₃, growth, flowering, physical fruit quality, fruit yield

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1. Sarkar GK, Sinha MM, Misra RS. Effect of NAA on fruit set, fruit drop, cracking, fruit size and quality in Litchi cv. Rose Scented. Prog Hortic. 1984;16(3–4):301–4.
2. Singh OP, Phogat KPS. Effect of plant growth regulators on fruit drop, size and quality of Litchi cv. Calcuttia. Punjab Hortic J. 1984;24(1–4):83–8.
3. Bhat SK, Raina BL, Chogtu SK, Muthoo AK. Effect of exogenous auxin application on fruit drop and cracking of Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) cv. Dehradun. Adv Plant Sci. 1997;10:83–6.
4. Brahmachari VS, Rani R. Effect of growth substances on fruit drop, yield and physico-chemical composition of Litchi fruits. Prog Hortic. 2001;32:50–5.
5. Pandey RM, Sharma HC. The Litchi. New Delhi: Indian Council of Agricultural Research; 1989. p. 1–79.
6. Kumar R, Khurana A, Sharma AK. Role of plant hormones and their interplay in development and ripening of fleshy fruits. J Exp Bot. 2013;65:4561–75. DOI: 10.1093/jxb/eru277.
7. Rademacher W. Plant growth regulators: Backgrounds and uses in plant production. J Plant Growth Regul. 2015;34:845–72. DOI: 10.1007/s00344-015-9541-6.
8. Khalil A, Banday FA, Bhat MY, Nazir N. Crop regulation through growth regulators in temperate fruit crops. In: Banday FA, Sharma MK, editors. Advances in Temperate Fruit Production. 2010. p. 177–86.
9. Noggle GR, Fritz GT. Introductory Plant Physiology. New Delhi: Prentice Hall of India Pvt Ltd; 1989. p. 4.
10. Adams PA, Montague MJ, Tepfer M, Rayle DL, Ikuma H, Kaufman PB. Effect of gibberellic acid on the plasticity and elasticity of Avena stem segments. Plant Physiol. 1975;56:757–60.
11. R Core Team. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing; 2024. Available from: https://www.R-project.org/.
12. Suman, Singh AK, Kanth N, Kumar A. Effect of foliar feeding of micronutrients and plant growth regulators on flowering and physical parameter of Guava (Psidium guajava) cv. Allahabad Safeda under agro-ecological condition of north Bihar. Pharma Innov J. 2021;10(9):483–6.
13. Kumar R, Tripathi VK, Tomar S, Chaudhary M. Effect of best plant bio-regulators and micronutrients for achieving higher yield and quality of Mango (Mangifera indica) fruits cv. Amrapali. J Plant Dev Sci. 2018;10(11):599–604.
14. Bhadauria AS, Tripathi VK, Singh A, Gupta S. Effect of foliar application of plant bio-regulators and micronutrients on fruit retention, yield and quality attributes of Aonla. Prog Res Int J. 2018;13(3):216–9.
15. Singh MK, Singh VB, Singh SS, Singh AK. Floral biology and fruit set of Mango (Mangifera indica) as influenced by different chemicals. Int J Curr Microbiol Appl Sci. 2019;8(1):1106–17.
16. Tripathi SK, Gangwar V, Kumar D, Pratap R, Pal O, Chouhan NK, et al. Influence of foliar application of NAA, GA₃ and zinc sulphate on fruiting and yield attributes of Ber (Zizyphus mauritiana). Biol Forum Int J. 2022;14(4):83–7.
17. Tripathi VK, Shukla PK. Influence of plant bio-regulators, boric acid and zinc sulphate on yield and fruit characters of strawberry cv. Chandler. Prog Hortic. 2010;42(2):186–8.
18. Priyadarshi V, Hota D, Karna AK. Effect of growth regulators and micronutrient spray on chemical parameters of Litchi (Litchi chinensis) cv. Calcuttia. Int J Econ Plants. 2018;5(3):99–103.
19. Gupta A, Tripathi VK, Shukla JK. Influence of GA₃, zinc and boron on fruit drop, yield and quality of Litchi (Litchi chinensis). Biol Forum Int J. 2022;14:1079–83. Available from: https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2019.801.119.
20. Kaur S. Effect of micronutrients and plant growth regulators on fruit set, fruit retention, yield and quality attributes in Litchi cultivar Dehradun. Chem Sci Rev Lett. 2017;6(22):982–6.
21. Animesh S, Ghosh B. Effect of foliar application of micronutrients on retention, yield and quality of fruit in Litchi cv. Bombai. Environ Ecol. 2009;27(1):89–91.
22. Ramezani S, Shekafandeh A. Roles of gibberellic acid and zinc sulphate in increasing size and weight of olive fruit. Afr J Biotechnol. 2009;8(24).
23. Singh B, Yadav AL, Meena AK. A study on foliar feeding of GA₃ and NAA on vegetative growth and yield of Phalsa (Grewia subinaequalis DC). Int J Curr Microbiol Appl Sci. 2017;6(6):768–75.
24. Tripathi VK, Shukla PK. Influence of plant bio-regulators and micronutrients on flowering and yield of strawberry cv. Chandler. Ann Hortic. 2008;1(1):45–8.
25. Singh T, Tripathi VK, Tiwari P. Influence of preharvest application of plant bio-regulators and micronutrients on fruit retention, yield and quality attributes of Mango. Prog Res Int J. 2017;12(4):2640–4.

The study was carried out at the Horticulture Research Centre (HRC) Fruit Orchard, Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Jamalpur, Bangladesh, during 2024–2025 to assess the influence of Plant Growth Regulator (PGR) (GA₃) on flowering and yield attributes of litchi. The age of Litchi plants were 14–15 years old.The treatments are T₁ =  GA₃@ 50 mg/L on panicle before flower opening, T₂ =  GA₃@ 50 mg/L at 15 days after fruit set, T₃ =  GA₃@ 50 mg/L at 21 days after fruit set, T₄ =  GA₃@ 50 mg/L at 28 days after fruit set, T₅ =  GA₃@ 100 mg/L on panicle before flower opening, T₆ =  GA₃@ 100 mg/L at 15 days after fruit set , T₇ =  GA₃@ 100 mg/L at 21 days after fruit set, T₈ =  GA₃@ 100 mg/L at 28 days after fruit set and T₉ =  Control (water spray only). All treatments were applied after flowering. The flowering date of studied trees varied from 20.02.2025 to 16.03.2025. The early flowering occurred in the control treatment (T₉) and late flowering was exhibited in T₇ treatment. Among nine treatments, four treatments flowered in February 2025 and five treatments in March 2025. As a consequence, GA₃ was found to be significant in case of all parameters. The T₁ treatment induced significantly maximum (935) number of fruits per plant closely followed by T₄ treatment (680), T₂ treatment (670) and the minimum (150) in the T₉ treatment. Maximum (18.80 g) individual fruit weight was found in T₇ treatment closely followed by treatments T₃& T₈ (18.60 g) and minimum (14.50 g) in control treatment (T₉). Maximum fruit weight/plant (15.39 kg) was noted in T₁ treatment followed by T₄ treatment (12.25 kg), T₂ treatment (11.97 kg) and lowest fruit weight/plant (2.79 kg) in control treatment (T₉). Percentage of rotted fruit ranged from 20.12% to 46.76% by the effect of GA₃ application. The highest rotted fruit was found in the control treatment (T₉) and minimum (20.12%) in T₇ treatment. Percentage of cracked fruit ranged from 8.68% to 54.62% by the effect of GA₃ application. Fruit cracking of Litchi is 8.68% in T₈ treatment followed by T₂ treatment 8.76% was found to be significantly lowest, respectively. According to particular studies, GA₃ can lower the proportion of fruit cracking. By the effect of GA₃, T₄ treatment induced significantly minimum (1.39 g) aril weight at harvesting closely followed by T₈ treatment (2.02 g). The maximum (4 g) aril weight at harvesting was presented with control (T₉). The highest TSS (19%) observed in the T₄ treatment and lowest (14%) in the T₃, T₆ and T₉(control) treatments. An increase in total soluble solids could indicate that GA₃ facilitates the transport of sugars across membranes.

Keywords: Litchi, Plant Growth Regulator (PGR), GA₃, growth, flowering, physical fruit quality, fruit yield

🔒 This is a subscription article

Full text is available to subscribers and institutional members. Please choose an option below to access it.

1. Sarkar GK, Sinha MM, Misra RS. Effect of NAA on fruit set, fruit drop, cracking, fruit size and quality in Litchi cv. Rose Scented. Prog Hortic. 1984;16(3–4):301–4.
2. Singh OP, Phogat KPS. Effect of plant growth regulators on fruit drop, size and quality of Litchi cv. Calcuttia. Punjab Hortic J. 1984;24(1–4):83–8.
3. Bhat SK, Raina BL, Chogtu SK, Muthoo AK. Effect of exogenous auxin application on fruit drop and cracking of Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) cv. Dehradun. Adv Plant Sci. 1997;10:83–6.
4. Brahmachari VS, Rani R. Effect of growth substances on fruit drop, yield and physico-chemical composition of Litchi fruits. Prog Hortic. 2001;32:50–5.
5. Pandey RM, Sharma HC. The Litchi. New Delhi: Indian Council of Agricultural Research; 1989. p. 1–79.
6. Kumar R, Khurana A, Sharma AK. Role of plant hormones and their interplay in development and ripening of fleshy fruits. J Exp Bot. 2013;65:4561–75. DOI: 10.1093/jxb/eru277.
7. Rademacher W. Plant growth regulators: Backgrounds and uses in plant production. J Plant Growth Regul. 2015;34:845–72. DOI: 10.1007/s00344-015-9541-6.
8. Khalil A, Banday FA, Bhat MY, Nazir N. Crop regulation through growth regulators in temperate fruit crops. In: Banday FA, Sharma MK, editors. Advances in Temperate Fruit Production. 2010. p. 177–86.
9. Noggle GR, Fritz GT. Introductory Plant Physiology. New Delhi: Prentice Hall of India Pvt Ltd; 1989. p. 4.
10. Adams PA, Montague MJ, Tepfer M, Rayle DL, Ikuma H, Kaufman PB. Effect of gibberellic acid on the plasticity and elasticity of Avena stem segments. Plant Physiol. 1975;56:757–60.
11. R Core Team. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing; 2024. Available from: https://www.R-project.org/.
12. Suman, Singh AK, Kanth N, Kumar A. Effect of foliar feeding of micronutrients and plant growth regulators on flowering and physical parameter of Guava (Psidium guajava) cv. Allahabad Safeda under agro-ecological condition of north Bihar. Pharma Innov J. 2021;10(9):483–6.
13. Kumar R, Tripathi VK, Tomar S, Chaudhary M. Effect of best plant bio-regulators and micronutrients for achieving higher yield and quality of Mango (Mangifera indica) fruits cv. Amrapali. J Plant Dev Sci. 2018;10(11):599–604.
14. Bhadauria AS, Tripathi VK, Singh A, Gupta S. Effect of foliar application of plant bio-regulators and micronutrients on fruit retention, yield and quality attributes of Aonla. Prog Res Int J. 2018;13(3):216–9.
15. Singh MK, Singh VB, Singh SS, Singh AK. Floral biology and fruit set of Mango (Mangifera indica) as influenced by different chemicals. Int J Curr Microbiol Appl Sci. 2019;8(1):1106–17.
16. Tripathi SK, Gangwar V, Kumar D, Pratap R, Pal O, Chouhan NK, et al. Influence of foliar application of NAA, GA₃ and zinc sulphate on fruiting and yield attributes of Ber (Zizyphus mauritiana). Biol Forum Int J. 2022;14(4):83–7.
17. Tripathi VK, Shukla PK. Influence of plant bio-regulators, boric acid and zinc sulphate on yield and fruit characters of strawberry cv. Chandler. Prog Hortic. 2010;42(2):186–8.
18. Priyadarshi V, Hota D, Karna AK. Effect of growth regulators and micronutrient spray on chemical parameters of Litchi (Litchi chinensis) cv. Calcuttia. Int J Econ Plants. 2018;5(3):99–103.
19. Gupta A, Tripathi VK, Shukla JK. Influence of GA₃, zinc and boron on fruit drop, yield and quality of Litchi (Litchi chinensis). Biol Forum Int J. 2022;14:1079–83. Available from: https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2019.801.119.
20. Kaur S. Effect of micronutrients and plant growth regulators on fruit set, fruit retention, yield and quality attributes in Litchi cultivar Dehradun. Chem Sci Rev Lett. 2017;6(22):982–6.
21. Animesh S, Ghosh B. Effect of foliar application of micronutrients on retention, yield and quality of fruit in Litchi cv. Bombai. Environ Ecol. 2009;27(1):89–91.
22. Ramezani S, Shekafandeh A. Roles of gibberellic acid and zinc sulphate in increasing size and weight of olive fruit. Afr J Biotechnol. 2009;8(24).
23. Singh B, Yadav AL, Meena AK. A study on foliar feeding of GA₃ and NAA on vegetative growth and yield of Phalsa (Grewia subinaequalis DC). Int J Curr Microbiol Appl Sci. 2017;6(6):768–75.
24. Tripathi VK, Shukla PK. Influence of plant bio-regulators and micronutrients on flowering and yield of strawberry cv. Chandler. Ann Hortic. 2008;1(1):45–8.
25. Singh T, Tripathi VK, Tiwari P. Influence of preharvest application of plant bio-regulators and micronutrients on fruit retention, yield and quality attributes of Mango. Prog Res Int J. 2017;12(4):2640–4.