Abstract
Experiments to investigate the effects of disbudding on growth analysis of two celosia cultivars, ‘Carmine’ and ‘Chief Gold’, were carried out on the field in 2009 and 2010 at the Sinna Garden of Department of Crop Science, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana. The treatments consisted of disbudding once, disbudding twice, and no disbudding, as control, and were arranged in a 3x2 split plot in a randomized complete block design with four replications in 2009 (experiment 1) and three in 2010 (experiment 2). The two cultivars were harvested weekly during the growing period and separated into the various plant parts and oven-dried for dry weights, using appropriate formulae to calculate the various growth parameters. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyse the data and a correlation coefficient matrix showed relationships among growth parameters. Disbudding resulted in increased leaf area index, leaf area ratio, leaf area duration, relative growth rate, and harvest index, but reduced crop growth rate and net assimilation rate. ‘Chief Gold’ had a higher harvest index than ‘Carmine’. Disbudding plants once gave the best flower head size and weight result. ‘Carmine’ gave the best flower yield and quality results in experiment 1 and ‘Chief Gold’ in experiment 2.
