A field investigation was carried at Medicinal and Aromatic Plant Project, Anand Agricultural University, Anand (Gujarat) to study the effect of harvesting time on growth, yield and quality of Safed musli during kharif 2011-12. The experiment consisted of four treatments viz., harvesting 60 DAP (T1), harvesting 80 DAP (T2), harvesting 100 DAP (T3) and harvesting 120 (days after planting (T4) and laid out in randomized block design with six replications. The findings indicated that the all parameters were significantly influenced due to different times of harvest. The maximum length (25.94 cm) of leaves, leaves per plant (9.53), breadth of leaves (1.56 cm) fresh and dry weight of leaf (9.23 g plant-1 and 1.92 g plant-1) was observed due to harvesting at 60 days after planting. Generally, number of leaves was decreased due to withering with passage of time up to harvest which affects fresh and dry weight of leaves. The growth analysis results revealed that harvesting at 60 days after planting exhibited significantly maximum leaf area (221.42 cm2 plant-1), leaf area ratio (43.51 cm2 g-1), crop growth rate (8.63 mg/cm2 d-1) and leaf area index (0.164) as compared to treatments T3 and T4 and remained at par with harvesting 80 days after planting. Leaf area of a crop at a particular growth stage indicates its photosynthetic potential or the level of its dry matter accumulation and affects other related parameters because of the functional leaf area plant-1.
Harvesting 120 days after planting recorded highest and had significantly more root shoot ratio (7.62) as compared to rest of the treatments due to higher root length. Significantly more and the highest number (15.63), length (8.79 cm), girth (3.15 cm), fasciculated root yield (3208.27 kg/ha) and dry fasciculated root yield (712.32 kg/ha) were recorded due to harvesting 120 days after planting as compared to rest of the treatments. Highest starch (37.61 %) and saponin (6.69 % from dry fasciculated roots and 1.12 % from skin portion) content was recorded under the treatment of harvesting at 60 DAP and120 DAP respectively. This might be due to an initial time plants are in active growth stage which resulted in more accumulation of food material. The storage in the form of sugar resulted in increased in starch content at early stage. While, at later stage starch is converted in to saponin resulted in decreasing starch content.