Abstract

Ten genotypes of marigold (both African and French types) were evaluated for their morphological characters as well as essential oil content at experimental orchard of Department of Horticulture, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana, India. The experimental results revealed that maximum plant height (117.67 cm) was recorded in MGH 160-9-2 African genotype and maximum plant spread (69.87 cm) was observed in MGH 8–2 French genotype, while maximum number of primary branches (37.83) was observed in MGH 109-1-2 genotype. Among flowering and yield parameters, flower size (9.03 cm), fresh weight (12.69 g), dry weight of flowers (2.390 g), flower yield per plant (568.5 g), flower yield per plot (9.09 kg) and flower yield per acre (14.21 t) were recorded maximum in MGH 160-9-2 and significantly superior over other genotypes, while maximum number of flowers per plant (122.92) was recorded in MGH 109-1-2 genotype. In case of essential oils extracted from hydro distillation method, maximum oil content (0.800 ml/kg) was obtained in MGH 8–2 followed by MGH 17-1 (0.717 ml/kg), both French types.