~ 1937 ~ Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2020; 9(6): 1937-1943 E-ISSN: 2278-4136 P-ISSN: 2349-8234 www.phytojournal.com JPP 2020; 9(6): 1937-1943 Received: 03-09-2020 Accepted: 14-10-2020 Ashok Dhakad Department of Horticulture, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana, India Satpal Baloda Department of Horticulture, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana, India SK Sehrawat Department of Horticulture, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana, India JR Sharma Department of Horticulture, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana, India Susheel Sharma Department of Horticulture, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana, India Jayanti Tokas Department of Biochemistry, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana, India Amit Kumar Department of Horticulture, RVSKVV, Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India Corresponding Author: Ashok Dhakad Department of Horticulture, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana, India Effect of NAA and zinc sulphate application on fruit drop, yield and quality attributes of mulberry ( Morus alba L.) Ashok Dhakad, Satpal Baloda, SK Sehrawat, JR Sharma, Susheel Sharma, Jayanti Tokas and Amit Kumar Abstract The investigation entitled “Effect of NAA and zinc sulphate application on fruit drop, yield and quality attributes of mulberry (Morus alba L.)” was conducted during 2018-19. The foliar application of different concentrations of zinc sulphate (0.2, 0.4 and 0.6%) and NAA (20, 40 and 60 ppm). Significantly improved in fruit set and fruit retention (per cent). The maximum was recorded from the trees treated with zinc sulphate @ 0.4 per cent and NAA @ 60 ppm. Significantly increase in yield parameters and total yield per tree was observed in the fruits harvested from the trees treated with zinc sulphate (0.4% and 0.6%) and NAA @ 60 ppm. Significantly improved in quality parameters was observed in the fruits harvested from the trees treated with zinc sulphate @ 0.4 per cent and NAA @ 40 ppm, while acidity was minimum with zinc sulphate @ 0.4 per cent and NAA @ 40 ppm. Keywords: Foliar spray, mulberry, NAA, quality, yield and zinc sulphate Introduction Mulberry is an important minor fruit crop belongs to the genus Morus under Moraceae family and Asia is considered to be the centre of origin of mulberry. It is originally a temperate fruit crop but it can be widely grown in both tropical and sub-tropical zone with of maximum 90% area in tropical zone (Datta, 1999) [8] . Commonly mulberry is extensively cultivated in plains and hilly areas and can be grown in several soil conditions up to an elevation of 3300 m above mean sea-level. It requires temperature ranging from 24 0 C to 37 0 C (Chattopadhyay, 1997) [5] . The total acreage of mulberry in India is around 2.82 lakh hectare and for different states, Karnataka has 1.66 lakh hectare which is a leading state in area and production in mulberry followed by Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala (Saroj and Awasthi, 2006) [28] . Mulberry is a multipurpose fruit tree, mostly cultivated for rearing silkworm, useful timber and in few areas used for roadside plantation but its importance, as a fruit crop should also not be undermined. There are about 100 species of the genus Morus, the majority of them occur in Asia, especially 24 species in China and 19 species in Japan. Several species of mulberry (Morus alba, Morus indica, Morus nigra, Morus serrata and Morus lavigata) are grown in India. (Datta, 1999) [8] . It is considered to be one of the equisite, nutritionally, medicinally and industrially valuable fruit trees beside its high industrial value. It bears heavy crop every year and gives grace economic returns involving little inputs (Saroj and Awasthi, 2006) [28] . Mulberry is a fast growing deciduous woody perennial plant and it has a deep-root system. It sheds its leaves in December-January under Haryana conditions. Blooming period starts from February onwards followed by fruit set and fruit development. NAA is a most important growth regulator of auxin group, which reduces the fruit drop and improve fruit set and quality specially TSS (Sharma and Tiwari, 2015) [31] . Zinc plays a vital role in enzyme activities and Zinc acts as a catalyser in the oxidation and reduction process and is also of great importance in sugar metabolism (Sharma and Tiwari, 2015) [31] . NAA and zinc sulphate are reported to be effective in fruit drop control and quality improvement in several fruit crops, however limited information is available in the present agro climate conditions of Haryana with respect to mulberry. Materials and Methods This experiment was conducted during 2018-19, on uniform fruiting mulberry orchard of Local cultivar planted at the spacing of 10X10 m.