EFFECT OF BANANA PSEUDOSTEM SAP AS LIQUID FERTILIZER IN ONION

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1 Indian J. Agric. Res., 47 (3) : , 2013 AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION CENTRE / indianjournals.com EFFECT OF BANANA PSEUDOSTEM SAP AS LIQUID FERTILIZER IN ONION J.R. Salunkhe, A.M. Patel, R.G. Patil and R.R. Pisal* Soil and Water Management Research Unit, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari , India Received: Accepted: ABSTRACT An investigation was carried out at Soil and Water Management Research Unit Farm, N.A.U., Navsari during rabi season of to study the feasibility of using banana pseudostem sap as liquid fertilizer in onion under drip irrigation. Banana speudostem sap is rich in nutrients and having growth promoting substances, its judicious utilization in crop production enhances crop yield with very less input costs. Due to various treatments yield of onion bulbs produced from 80 % RDF along with 2000 l/ha under drip irrigation. In case of nutrient content and uptake, 100 % RDF with 2000 l/ha gave highest values which were followed by 80 % RDF l/ha. These treatments produced higher nutrient availability in soil. Key words: Banana pseudostem sap, Economics, Nutrient, Onion, Yield. INTRODUCTION Onion is a highly responsive crop to applied inputs. In order to enhance the productivity of onion an experiment was conducted rabi season, after transplanted paddy under South Gujarat condition, there is need to generate appropriate technologies with respect to inorganic fertilizer management along with organics like banana pseudostem sap under micro-irrigation system (drip). While separating fibres from the banana pseudostem, the liquid available is known as banana pseudostem sap which contains sufficient amount of essential macro and micro plant nutrients. Hence, there is vast scope to utilize banana pseudostem sap as liquid fertilizer. However, there is very wide information gap on the efficiency and utilization of banana pseudostem sap as organic liquid fertilizer in India and abroad. Keeping all these points in view, the present investigations were undertaken on paddy land of south Gujarat. MATERIALS AND METHODS An investigation was carried out on clay soil having characteristics as follows: texture-clay, organic carbon 0.42 %, available N 204 kg/ha, available P 2 O 5 67 kg/ha, available K 2 O 472 kg/ha and DTPA extractable Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn 8.10, 19.54, 0.68 and 2.10 ppm, respectively; of kyari land after kharif paddy at Soil and Water Management * Corresponding author s rrpagri@gmail.com Research Unit Farm, N.A.U., Navsari, in rabi The field experiment was conducted in FRBD, which consisted of 12 treatment combinations of three levels of RDF (125:50:50 kg NPK/ha) viz. F 1 = 60 %, F 2 = 80 % and F 3 = 100 % of RDF; and four levels of banana speudostem sap (S 0 = No sap, S 1 = 1000, S 2 = 1500 and S 3 = 2000 lit. sap/ha) under MIS (Drip at 0.6 IW/CPE ratio) along with control treatment of 100 per cent RDF irrigation was kept outside the experimental blocks. All the treatments were replicated three times. The yield, nutrient availability, content and uptake were studied under the course of investigation. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Effect of Fertilizer levels: The results pertaining to yield, nutrient availability, content and uptake in Table-1-4 clearly indicated that levels of RDF produce significantly increased bulb yield of onion. The data regarding bulb yield presented in Table-1 showed that both F 2 and F 3 levels of RDF proved their superiority by producing significantly higher bulb yield to the tune of and 7.67 per cent over F 1 (60 % RDF), respectively. Balanced fertilization helped in formation of food reservoir due to higher photosynthetic activity, cellular activity in the roots and leaves both resulting in increased yield. Similar favourable effect of higher level of fertilizers

2 Vol. 47, No. 3, Tr eatmen t A ) Fertil izer level s ( RD F) B ul b yiel d ( t/h a) Y iel d Leaves yiel d (t/ha ) Co st o f p ro du cti on (Rs./h a) Eco n om ics Real izati on (Rs./ha ) G r oss F F F M ean S.Em ± CD B ) L evels o f sap S S S S M ean S.Em ± CD NS C) Co ntro l S.Em ± CD In ter acti o n (F X S) TABLE 1: Effect of different treatments on bulb and leaves yield (t/ha) and economics of onion. S.Em ± CD N S NS CV (% ) N et B CR on yield of onion bulb (28.31 t/ha) was recorded by Singh et al., (1987) and Singh et al., (1993) on loamy soils of Faizabad. The results were also in agreement with the findings reported by Saimbhi and Randhawa (1983) and Jayathilake et al., (2002). The data given in Table-1 revealed that 80 per cent RDF + raised bed + MIS (F 2 ) recorded the highest net return ( Rs/ha) and also BCR (6.2). The percentage increase in net realization was 8.4 and 0.2 per cent at F 2 over F 1 and F 3 levels of RDF, respectively. The lower net realization under F 1 was due to relatively lower yield of onion bulb. Therefore, 80 per cent RDF seemed to be an optimum dose applied through MIS under raised bed condition for onion from yield, quality and net return view point. The results are in line with the results reported by Nasreen and Hossain (2004), Warade et al. (1995) and Patel and Rajput (2007) in onion. The data presented in Table- 2 showed that the levels of RDF failed to exert any significant effect on nutrient content in case of N and P, while increasing trend of K content in bulb and leaves of onion with increasing levels of fertilizer was observed. The significantly higher value of K content was found in bulb (1.17 %) in treatment F 3 which recieved 100 per cent RDF, but remained at par with treatment F 2 (80 % RDF) while, K content in leaves increased significantly with increasing fertilizer levels. The data presented in Table- 3 indicated that the uptake of macronutrients (i.e. N, P and K) by bulb and leaves of onion significantly influenced by different levels of RDF except P uptake by leaves. However, the increasing trend was observed with increasing levels of RDF. It was also observed that the treatment receiving 100 per cent RDF (F 3 ) has produced si gnificantly higher values of uptake of macronutrients by bulb and leaves of onion as compared to the values recorded in the treatment F 1 (60 % RDF), but was on par with F 2 (80 % RDF) except in case of P uptake by bulb. The appraisal of data (Table- 4) indicated that all the levels of RDF failed to exert any significant effect on available nutrient content in soil. Further, it was also observed that available nutrients increased with increasing levels of RDF but the magnitude was very meager. This might be due to the raised bed along with MIS

3 260 INDIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH Trea tm ent A ) Fertil izer level s ( RDF) N P K B ul b L eaves Bu lb L eaves B u lb L ea ves F F F Mea n S.Em ± CD NS N S NS N S B ) L evels of sap TABLE 2: Effect of different treatments on macronutrient content (%) in onion at harvest. S S S S Mea n S.Em ± CD 0.07 N S C) Co n tr ol S.Em ± CD 0.06 N S NS Inter acti on (F X S) S.Em ± CD NS N S NS N S NS NS CV (% ) Treat. A) Fertilizer levels (RDF) N P K Bulb Leaves Total Bulb Leaves Total Bulb Leaves Total F F F Mean S.Em ± CD B) Levels of sap S S S S Mean S.Em ± CD 5.93 NS NS Control S.Em ± CD Interaction (F X S) TABLE 3: Effect of different treatments on macronutrient uptake (kg/ha) by onion at harvest. S.Em ± CD NS NS NS NS NS NS NS NS NS CV (%)

4 Vol. 47, No. 3, Tr eat TABLE 4: Effect of different treatments on available nutrient content in soil after harvest of onion A ) Fertil izer levels ( RD F) SO C (% ) N (kg/h a) P 2 O 5 (kg/ha) K 2 O (kg/ha ) F F F M ean S.Em ± B ) L evels o f sap S S S S M ean S.Em ± Con tr ol S.Em ± CD NS N S NS NS NS N S In te racti o n (F X S) S.Em ± CV (% ) providing loose and porous soil medium at the basement of plant for better development of roots and by their optimum absorption of both water and nutrients, which enhanced the content and uptake of both macro and micronutrients cations by onion crop. Similar trend of result was also reported by Singh et al. (2000), Nasreen and Hossain (2004), Gethe et al. (2006) and Aisha et al. (2007) in onion. Effect of levels of banana pseudostem sap: The data presented in Table- 1 revealed that the bulb yield was significantly increased with increasing levels of banana speudostem sap. The treatment received 2000 l/ha (S 3 ) recorded significantly higher value of bulb yield (52.27 t/ha) than the treatment S 0 (without sap) and S 1 (1000 l/ha) but was found at par with S 2 (i.e l/ha). The different levels of sap application significantly influenced the uptake of N, P and K by both bulb and leaves of onion, except in case of N and K uptake by leaves. Further, it was also noticed that the treatment receiving 2000 l/ha (S 3 ) recorded significantly higher values of N (75.32 kg/ha), P (28.0 kg/ha) and K ( kg/ha) uptake by bulb as compared to S 0 and S 1, but was on par with S 2. The similar trend was also found in case of K uptake by leaves of onion. Further, it was observed that the treatment S 0 (no sap application) produced significantly lowest values of N uptake by bulb. Among different levels of sap (Table-1) application through MIS under raised bed condition, both S 2 and S 3 proved their superiority over the rest (S 0 and S 1 ) by fetching higher net realization and BCR was mainly because of increase in the onion bulb yield as well as improvement in quality parameters of onion bulb. The levels of sap application viz. S 1 = 1000; S 2 = 1500 and S 3 = 2000 l/ha through drip under raised bed condition produced higher values of net return to the tune of 80.6, 99.8 and per cent, respectively over control treatment. The data in (Table- 4) indicated that all the levels of sap failed to exert any significant effect on available nutrient content in soil. Further, it was also observed that available nutrients increased with increasing levels of sap but had the low magnitude. Banana pseudostem sap contains higher amount majority of essential nutrients especially N and K, which ultimately increase the growth, yield, nutrient content, uptake and availability.

5 262 INDIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH CONCLUSION It can be concluded from above study that for achieving higher yield of onion grown on raised bed and irrigated by drip method, it is necessary to apply 80 per cent of RDF (20 % fertilizer saving) along with banana pseudostem 1500 l/ha. Application of 80 per cent RDF (100:40:40 kg NPK/ha) along with banana pseudostem 1500 l/ha, improve quality of onion and maintains soil health also. These cultivation practices increased the net monitory return per uni t cost; hence i t i s mo st economically viable and practically feasible for onion growers. REFERENCES Aisha, A. H.; Fatma, A.; Rizk, A. M.; Shaheen A. M., and Mona M. (2007). Onion plant growth, bulbs yield and its physical and chemical properties as affected by organic and natural fertilization. Res. J. Agric. Biolo. Sci., 3 (5): Gethe, R. M.; Pawar, V. S.; Pathan, S. H.; Sonawane, D. A. and Kadlag, A. D. (2006). Influence of planting layout, irrigation regimes and fertilizer levels on growth and yield of onion under micro-sprinkler. J. Maharashtra Agric. Univ., 31 : Jayathilake, R. S. K.; Reddy, I. P.; Shihari, D.; Neeraja, G. and Reddy, R. (2002). Effect of nutrient management on growth, yield and yield attributes of Rabi onion. Veg. Sci., 29 (2): Nasreen, S. and Hossain, A. K. M. (2004). Nutrient uptake and yield of onion as influenced by chemical fertilizer and organic manure. Indian J. Agric. Rese., 38 : Pande, R. C. and Mundra, R. S. (1971). Note on response of onion to varying levels of N, P and K. Indian J. Agric. Scie., 41 (2): Patel, N. and Rajput, T. B. S. (2007). Effects of fertigation on growth and yield of onion. Irrig. Sci., 27 : Saimbhi, M. S. and Randhawa, K. S. (1983). Influence of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium on the yield and processing quality of onion bulbs. Vegetable Sci., 10 (2): Singh, J. V.; Kumar, A. and Singh, C. (2000). Influence of phosphorus on growth and yield of onion. Indian J. Agric. Rese., 34 (2): Singh, S.; Singh, R. K.; Singh, T. and Singh, S. B. (1993). Response of Rabi onion to nitrogen and potassium application on growth and yield. Veg. Scie., 20 (1): Singh, T.; Singh, B. N.; Singh, S. B.; Kumar, S. and Singh, S. S. (1987). Effect of irrigation and nitrogen levels on yield attributes of onion. Prog. Hort., 19 (3-4): Warade, S. D.; Desale, S. B. and Shinde, K. G. (1995). Effects of organic, inorganic and bio-fertilizer on yield of onion bulb. J. Maharashtra Agric. Univ., 20: