Effect of plant density, levels of fertilizer and growth regulators on yield attributes and yield of transplanted fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)

A field experiment was conducted during 2002-04 at Instructional Farm, Udaipur, Rajasthan, to find out the optimum plant density, levels of fertilizer and growth regulators for higher productivity of transplanted fennel (Foeniculum vulgare mi L.). Planting of fennel at a density of 55.55 thousand plants/ha significantly increased seed yield/ha during both the years although the maximum number of yield attributes/plant were recorded with the density of 27.77 thousand plants/ha. The mean increase in seed yield due to planting of crop at a density of 55.55 thousand plants/ba was 17.10 and 6.04% over the densities of 27.77 and 83.33 thousand plants/ha respectively. Application of 90 kg N + 17.2 kg P + 16.6 kg K + 20 kg S + 5 kg Zn/ha significantly increased yield-attributing characters and yield of fennel over rest of the treatments. The mean, increases with the application of NPKSZn was 22.37, 10.09 and 6.99% in seed yield and 18.39, 7.55 and 4.56% in stover yield over that of NPK, NPKZn and NPKS respectively. Application of naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) at 100 ppm and benzyl adenine (BA) at 10 ppm significantly increased few yield attributes such as number of umbels/plant, umbellets/umbel and seeds/umbel and yield of fennel during both the years. The mean increases in seed yield owing to application of NAA at 100 ppm and BA at 10 ppm was 15.58 and 8.37%, respectively, over water spray (1.80 tonnes/ha).