Effect of Drip Irrigation with Fertigation and Plastic Mulching on Growth and Yield of Coconut (Cocos nucifera L.)
Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: A field experiment was conducted to study the effect of drip irrigation, fertigation and mulching on coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) var. VHC 3. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design (RBD) with seven treatments and three replications. The treatments comprised of 100% (T1), 80% (T2) and 60% (T3) recommended dose of fertilizer with 100 micron thickness plastic mulch and 100% (T4), 80% (T5) and 60% (T6) recommended dose of fertilizer without plastic mulch. The control was with conventional method of irrigation (basin irrigation) without mulch (T7). The recorded data on the growth and yield of coconut revealed that the plant height, canopy development and other plant growth parameters were higher in the treatment with 100% recommended dose of fertilizer (0.50:0.32:1.20 kg of NPK / tree) with 100 micron thickness plastic mulch (T1) when compared to other treatments. The maximum yield attributes viz., spathe length, number of inflorescence, number of bunches/palm/year and number of nuts/bunch of 127.76 cm, 13, 13 and 31, respectively were recorded in 100 % of recommended dose of drip fertigation with 100 micron plastic mulching. The lowest spathe length, number of inflorescence, number of bunches/palm/year and number of nuts/bunch of 92.16 cm, 8, 8 and 12, respectively were recorded in control treatment without mulch. The number of nuts per palm, an important yield contributing trait was promising with 292 nuts/ palm/ year in 100 % of recommended dose of drip fertigation with 100 micron plastic mulching (T1) treatment. Likewise gradual reductions in weed population, superior water use efficiency and nutrient use efficiency were observed in all the plastic mulch combination treatments when compared with other treatments without mulch.
Institution: Tamil Nadu Agricultural University
Language: English
Subfield: Soil Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Zero hunger
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2769425946