Effect of Pusa Hydrogel and Plant Growth Regulators on Fruiting, Yield, Fruit Quality and Economics of Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) cv. Chandler

Abstract

A treatment that produces vigorous plants and conserves irrigation water is not automatically the treatment a grower should adopt; that decision ultimately rests on how many fruits reach the crate, how good they taste, and whether the extra input pays for itself. These are the questions the present study addresses. Building on a two-season field trial that has already established the vegetative and water-use responses of strawberry cv. Chandler to Pusa Hydrogel and the plant growth regulators Triacontanol and Cycocel, this paper reports the reproductive, yield, quality and economic outcomes of the same experiment, none of which have been published previously. The trial was conducted during 2021–22 and 2022–23 at the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Kotwa, located in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, in a Randomized Block Design with 27 treatments - Pusa Hydrogel at 30 g and 60 g per plant, Triacontanol at 120 ppm and 170 ppm, and Cycocel at 600 ppm and 1200 ppm, applied singly and in combination - replicated three times. Days to first fruit, fruit length and width, fruit set percentage, fruit number, cumulative yield per plant and per hectare, individual fruit weight, four biochemical quality traits (total soluble solids, juice pH, titratable acidity and ascorbic acid), and a full cost–return analysis were recorded, to which a marginal-return comparison not previously applied to this dataset was added. Triacontanol at 170 ppm combined with 60 g Pusa Hydrogel (T20) reached first fruit earliest (71.15 days, pooled), produced the largest fruit (4.83 cm long, 3.49 cm wide), set fruit most efficiently (63.16%), and out-yielded every other treatment on both a per-plant (217.04 g, a 38.7% gain over the control) and per-hectare basis (7.162 t). The same treatment gave the sweetest, most nutritionally rich fruit (TSS 10.54 °Brix; ascorbic acid 52.99 mg per 100 g) and returned the highest net income of the trial (₹ 11,30,324 per hectare; benefit–cost ratio 3.74:1). A partial-budget comparison showed that the additional Triacontanol needed to move from the next-best treatment (T12) to T20 cost roughly ₹ 200 per hectare yet returned an extra ₹ 47,000 - while Pusa Hydrogel used on its own, without a growth regulator, left growers worse off than doing nothing at all. Read alongside the trial's previously reported growth and water-use responses, these results close the loop from field performance to farm income and make a clear case for pairing Pusa Hydrogel with Triacontanol rather than relying on either input in isolation.