Effect of Removal of Terminal and Axillary Heads and Thinning of Central Flower Clusters on the Yield and Quality of Seeds of Broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. Italica Plenck.) cv. Calabrese in the Plain Areas of Chitwan

Abstract ―​

An experiment was conducted on broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. Italica) cv. Calabrese during the winter season, 2004/05 in Fulbari Village Development Committee, Chitwan, Nepal to find out the suitable treatment measures for quality seed production. The treatments imposed were i) no removal of any heads (control) ii) removal of terminal head just after sprouting iii) removal of terminal head at marketable stage iv) removal of terminal plus first two axillary heads at marketable stage v) removal of all axillary heads at marketable stage and vi) retain only terminal head with thinning of 50% flower stalks at the stage when flower buds begin to open and removal of all axillary heads at marketable stage. The experiment was conducted in Randomized Complete Bock Design (RCBD) with six treatments and replicated four times. Seed yield/ha was found highest (1148 kg) with the treatment removal of terminal head at marketable stage. Germination percentage did not differ among the treatments. The treatment with thinning of 50% central flower clusters with removal of all axillary heads at marketable stage had higher amount of 1000 seed weight (3.900 g) which was statistically at par with the treatment with removal of terminal head at marketable stage (3.885 g). Since the treatment removal of terminal head at marketable stage produced higher seed yield (1148 kg/ha) along with fresh vegetable crop (1285 kg/ha) and gave more economic return (Rs. 950525/ha) by selling them and no statistical difference with other treatments was observed in quality parameters, this treatment was identified as superior measure for producing good quality seed in the plain areas of Chitwan.