Association of Agrometeorologists

Agro-meteorological indices of aromatic rose (Rosa damascena Mill.) influenced by pruning time in the western Himalayas

MEENAKSHI THAKUR and RAKESH KUMAR

A field experiment was conducted during 2015-2017 at CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur, India to calculate agro-meteorological indices and to study the duration of different phenological phases of damask rose (Rosa damascena) varieties under mid hills of western Himalayas. Agro-meteorological indices were computed for two damask rose varieties Himroz and Jwalaat different pruning time from October 30 to January 15 at fifteen days’ interval. The results indicated that the number of days required forattaining each phenological stage, decreased with delay in pruning time. Variation in different phenological stages of damask rose varieties were observed. Higher GDD, PTU and HTU were accounted by Jwala as compared to Himroz during all the phenophases of R. damascena. Plants pruned on January 15 (late pruning) required lesser GDD, PTU as well as HTU, while plants pruned on October 30 (early pruning) accumulated higher GDD, PTU and HTU during crop growth period. The results showed that agro-meteorological indices play a vital role in the productivity of R. damascenacrop.

Pruning time, growing degree days, photothermal unit,helio-thermal unit.