Effects of Foliar Application of 6-benzylaminopurine on Zingiber officinale Rosc. (Zingerberaceae) Boziab Variety Growth and Rhizome Production in Ethiopia

Aim: Various studies have been conducted on the effect of plant growth regulators in vitro. However, studies on foliar exogenous spray of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) in ginger are lacking. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the foliar application of BAP on ginger cultivated in pot as well as on plain land.

Materials and Methods: To accomplish these task different concentrations of BAP i.e. 0 ppm, 50 ppm, 100 ppm and 150 ppm were applied exogenously on four months old ginger plants. Plants sprayed with distilled water were served as control. After two consecutive months of foliar spray with BAP, various physio-morphological characters were measured.

Results: It was observed that 100 ppm of BAP was found to be effective to regulate shoot growth for ginger plants grown in pot and 50 ppm of BAP was effective for ginger plants cultivated on plain land in comparison to control. BAP was also found to be effective for number of fingers/rhizome and rhizome width at 100 ppm and 50 ppm when cultivated in pot and on plain land respectively. Decrease in the rhizome length and fresh weight was observed at higher concentration of BAP. Thus, this study is the first from Ethiopia that explains the effect of foliar application of BAP on morpho-physiological effect in Boziab variety of ginger.

Conclusion: It may be concluded from the present investigation that plant growth regulator particularly BAP was found to be potent plant growth regulator to enhance the different morphological features of ginger shoots. Future research on the relationship between the effect of different class of growth regulators on shoot growth and rhizome production in ginger is necessary to derive a certain conclusive mechanism.