Plant growth retardants improve sink strength and yield of sunflower

KBSH-44, a public sector sunflower hybrid has high biomass production capacity with yield comparable to other popular hybrids. This hybrid is tall with more stalk weight wherein, photo-assimilates are locked up in vegetative parts with a reduced translocation to their productive structures (seed). Any approach, which reduces the plant height, may improve the translocation efficiency to the seed and thus seed yield. In this context, a field experiment was conducted to reduce the plant height by foliar application of plant growth retardants viz., paclobutrazol (PBZ), mepiquat chloride (MPC) and chloromequat chloride (CCC) to improve the sink strength.