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The present investigation entitled “Effect of media and GA3 on seed germination of custard apple (Annona squamosa L.) cv. Sindhan” was conducted at Lalbaugh Farm, Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh (Gujarat) during summer season of the year 2016. The treatments comprised of different growing media [M1 - soil + cocopeat (1:1), M2 - soil + cocopeat + sand (1:1:1), M3 - soil + cocopeat + FYM (1:1:1), M4 - soil + cocopeat + sand + FYM (1:1:1:1)] and different concentration of GA3 (G1 - GA3 100 mg/l, G2 - GA3 150 mg/l, G3 - GA3 200 mg/l and G4 – water soaked). The experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Block Design Factorial concept comprising sixteen treatment combinations and replicated three times. Different growing media and concentration of GA3 were significantly affected the seed germination parameters viz., days required for initiation of germination, seed germination (%), germination period (days), seed vigour (cm) and germination index of custard apple seeds but interaction effect of different growing media and different concentration of GA3 on seed germination parameters were found non significant. The media consisting of soil + cocopeat + sand + FYM (1:1:1:1) had significant influence on different germination parameters like minimum days required to seed germination (20.25 days), maximum germination (80.62 %), minimum germination period (24.09 days), maximum seed vigour (2890 cm), maximum germination index (3.31) of custard apple seedling during the course of experimentation. The treatment of GA3 200 mg/l had significant influence on different germination parameters like minimum days required for seed germination (20.25 days), highest germination (80.07 %), minimum germination period (23.63 days), highest seed vigour (2853 cm) and germination index (3.22) of custard apple seedling during course of experimentation.
Keywords: Custard apple, Sindhan, Media, Gibberellic acid, cocopeat, seed vigour.