1Dept. of Fruit Science, College of Horticulture, GKVK campus, Bengaluru, India
2Principal Scientist (Hort-Fruit Science), ICAR-DCR, Puttur-574202
3Professor and Head, Dept. of Fruit Science, COH, Bengaluru-560065
4Professor and ADR and E (Rtd.), RHREC, Bengaluru-560065
5Professor and Head, Dept. of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, COH, Bengaluru-560065
6Professor, Dept. of Agronomy, RHREC, UHS Campus, Bengaluru-560065
7Aeroponics Centre, PRS Horticulture farm, Chickaballapura, Karnataka, India
*corresponding author: abhijithyc@rediffmail.com
Online published on 17 March, 2018.
Aonla (Emblicaofficinalis Gaertn.) is one of the most important minor fruits of India, which is also known as Indian gooseberry which belongs to family Euphorbiaceae and is native to Central and Southern India. Though it is a hardy crop, growers are experiencing the problem of heavy premature fruit drop leading to reduced yield and sometimes reduced quality due to necrosis which may be due to difficiency of nutrients, particularly micronutrient. Hence, to sole this issue, the present study was conducted to asses the response of foliar application of different micronutrients on growth and yield of aonla cv. NA-7. The results revealed that the foliar spray of micronutrient combination of 0.5% ZnSO4 + 0.5% FeSO4 + 0.25% Borax significantly increased overall growth of plants, reduced the incidence of fruit drop (45.60% as against 79.63% in control) resulting in increased fruit set (53.73% as against 21% in control). The said combination of micronutrients was also associated with highest fruit weight (43.69 g), fruit length (3.78 cm), fruit diameter (4.93 cm) and yield (24.96 kg/plant).
