Science Letters

Vegetative and Reproductive Response of Bitter Gourd to the Foliar Application of Boric Acid

Fozia 1, Muhammad Muzammil Jahangir 1, Anam Zahid 1*, Asif Ali Khan 1, Sai-Jun Chu 3, Muhammad Ramzan 2

1 Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan

2 Department of Forestry, Nanjing Forestry University, Jiangsu, Nanjing, China

3 College of Horticulture, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun, Jilin, China

Abstract

Bitter gourd is the most valuable medicinal vegetable of family Cucurbitaceae. Bitter gourd is monoecious in nature, which has the ability to produce more staminate flowers than to pistillate flowers. The main reason for the reduction in yield of bitter gourd is due to less female flower production. Boron is the micronutrient, which plays an important role in plant development, membrane stability, cell wall structure, phenol and carbohydrate metabolism and sugar transportation. Boron has an important role in the cell differentiation, growth of cell wall, growth of shoot and it also enhances the number of flowers and ultimately fruit yield. Foliar application of boric acid at the concentration of 6 mM significantly increased the number of nodes for the appearance of male flowers, number of nodes for the appearance of female flowers, numbers of male and female flowers per plant, sex ratio M/F and plant height at flower bud initiation stage. The application of boric acid (6 mM) also increased the plant height, root weight, fruit numbers per plant at 1st and 2nd picking, fruit length per plant, fruit diameter per plant, fresh fruit weight and plant weight and yield at 2nd picking. These results suggest that the boric acid foliar application can be useful to improve female flowers and yield of the bitter guard.