*Corresponding Author ________________________________________________ Journal of Plant Development Sciences Vol. 11(1) : 39-44. 2019 SUCKER TYPE, HARVESTING PERIOD AND AGRO-MORPHOLOGICAL PARAMETERS FOR FASTER MULTIPLICATION OF ALOE VERA L. Parmeshwar Lal Saran*, Ram Prasnna Meena, Hetal J. Christian and Riddhi B. Patel ICAR-Directorate of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research, Boriavi –387310, Anand, Gujarat, India Received-02.01.2019, Revised-19.01.2019 Abstract: Aloe barbadensis Miller has been used traditionally for heeling as a natural medicine. This crop attracting global market especially for cosmetic, pharmaceutical and food industry, therefore, greater demand for produce. It can be met out only through large scale cultivation. For this we need sufficient quality planting material of particular elites rich in bioactive chemicals, true to type and having short gestation period. Suckers are the primary and suitable source as propagating material. Agro-morphological parameters were observed maximum at four pair leaves from nine months harvest and minimum at one pair leaf from seven-month harvest. Maximum leaf and sucker were also observed in three and four pairs leaves at nine months after transplanting under well managed condition. The bacterial soft rot disease causes significant losses to the crop was also observed in the field. The leaf and sucker yield were increased with increase the sucker sizes. Keywords: Aloe vera, Harvesting stage, Leaf yield, Soft rot, Sucker INTRODUCTION loe vera popularly known as aloe, is a xerophytic succulent perennial plant belongs to family Asphodelaceae and represented in the Liliaceae family, although it has its own family known as Alliaceae (Eshun and He, 9). The genus Aloe consisting more than 300 species, but there are only two species, Aloe barbadensis Miller and Aloe aborescens grown commercially (Tawaraya et al., 17). Aloe barbadensis Miller and A. chinensisare considered the most biologically active species in India (Tawaraya et al., 17). It is grown under subtropical and tropical parts of the world in various countries. The leaves are composed of three layers, an inner gel, a yellow sap and the outer thick layer of 15-20 cells called as rind (Eshun and He, 9; Surjushe et al., 16). Aloe vera contained 98.5% water and the two major liquid sources are yellow latex and clear gel present in large parenchymatic cells of the leaf (Dagne et al., 7). The plants generally grow 60 to 100 cm height in typical rosette shape with radically arranged leaves in two or three circles. The succulent leaves are pea green colour, 30-50 cm long and 10 cm broad at the base in triangular shape with spikes along the edges. Aloe leaf gel is major economical constituent used in variety of cosmetics including shampoos, sun blocks, lotions and skin creams. Aloe has been marketed as a remedy for healing wounds, burns, minor cuts, coughs, ulcers, gastritis, diabetes, cancer, headaches, arthritis, immune-system deficiencies and many other conditions when taken internally and externally (Rajeswari et al., 15). There is a huge demand of aloe leaf for industry purpose (Aggarwal and Barna, 1) with an estimated annual market of $13 billion and which will increase up to 40% in coming five years (Grace et al., 10). This global demand cannot be met through wild harvest. Aloe is a hardy species which demands less care for its cultivation and does not require very fertile land and lesser prone to pest and diseases. In India vast area remains underutilized due to low fertility and lack of resources, Aloe can be a good option for such areas for fetching high value. The presence of male sterility in flower is a major hurdle in rapid multiplication of crop by seeds. Therefore, suckers or offshoots are the primary source of propagation for commercial cultivation of crop. Generally, it produced 3-5 suckers per plant and all sized suckers are chosen carefully, dugout without damaging the parent plant, and directly planted in the field. The fertile seeds are derived through cross pollination (Botes et al., 5) but it involves high heterogeneity of seedlings and maintaining cost because of frequent natural hybridization of the species (Alagukannan and Ganesh, 2). Seed propagated plants having long gestation period (3-4 years for harvestable stage) as compare to suckers in one year (Cristiano et al., 6). Keeping this in view, the present work was taken on disease incidence and cost-effective propagation through suckers for easy, true to type and short gestation period using variant of sucker‟s sizes. MATERIALS AND METHODS Experimental site The experiment was carried out research farm of ICAR-Directorate of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research, Boriavi, Anand, Gujarat during harvesting season of the year 2017-18. The experimental farm is located at 22 ◦ 35 ’ N and 72 ◦ 55 ’ E at an altitude of about 45. 1 m above MSL. Plant materials Planting material of aloe vera was collected from previous crop grown on same farm at different location. The suckers were planted at a spacing of 60 × 60 cm with four different treatment i.e. one pair leaf, two pair leaves, three pair leaves and four pair A RESEARCH ARTICLE