Vrikshayurveda based biostimulant ‘herbal kunapjala’ enhanced the survival, growth and biochemical characteristics of litchi air layers

Abstract

The present experiment was conducted to study the effect of biostimulants like herbal kunapjala, seaweed extract and triacontanol on survival percentage, vegetative growth and biochemical parameters of litchi air layers. The results revealed that at 120 and 180 days after planting (DAP), respectively, maximum survival percentage (90% and 88.33%), better vegetative growth parameters like number of primary roots (19.15 and 23.48), relative growth rate (1.902 mg/day and 2.672 mg/day), as well as biochemical parameters like total chlorophyll (1.46 mg/g, 3.40 mg/g), total carotenoids (0.117 mg/g and 0.292 mg/g), phenols (36.1 mg/100 g and 48.62 mg/100 g) and proline (0.382 µmol/g and 0.462 µmol/g) were found in the plants applied with herbal kunapjala 2 at 100 mL/L. The same treatment also recorded maximum values for shoot length, root length, number of leaves, biochemical parameters and leaf nutrients. The other types and concentration of herbal kunapjala and seaweed extract also showed better results when compared to triacontanol and control.