Effect of chemical mutagens on growth and flowering of carnation

Mutation breeding is one of the most reliable techniques in improving crop plants. Mutagens are used to bring the variability in floricultural crop, like Dianthus. The genetic variability created by mutation will be studied for development of new cultivar in carnation having significant consumer preference. Therefore, with consideration to the above factors, the present experiment was undertaken with the objective are to explore the possibilities of chemical mutagens to create genetic variability in carnation and to study the morphological changes occurs in carnation as a result of mutagenesis. In present study, three different concentrations (0.25, 0.50 and 0.75%) of ethyl methane sulphonate (EMS) and (0.1, 0.3 and 0.5%) of methyl methane sulphonate were used to treated Dianthus seedling and without treated plant used as controlled to assess the quantitative and qualitative parameter of carnation cultivar Pink Donna. It was noted that plant height was significantly influenced in treated plant in all the treatment except T7 i.e. control. Treatment T7 recorded significantly highest plant height (73.67) cm over rest of treatments while treatment T3 recorded lowest plant height (57.31) cm. T7 (control) took significantly highest number of days (135.53) for first flowering followed by T3 (129.80) days. Highest stalk length of flower (70.19) cm was observed in control plant as compared to other treated plant. The data revealed that the there was no significant difference in no. of shoot per plant, thickness of flower stalk and flower diameter of treated and control plants. The data showed that mean number of nodes was influenced by chemical mutagens. T6 produced significantly least number of nodes per stalk (8) while T7 (control) produced significantly maximum number of nodes per stalk (11.40). T3 recorded the least per cent of calyx splitting (15.33%). There was no flower, leaves abnormalities and petal colour variation between treated and control plants.