Effect of Pruning Techniques and Foliar Nutrients Interval on Growth and Leaf Yield of Curry Leaf (Murraya koenigii Spreng)

A field experiment on effect of pruning techniques and foliar nutrients on growth biomass yield and quality of curry leaf (Murraya koenigii Spreng.) was conducted at the Department of Spices and Plantation Crops, Horticultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Periyakulam during 2015. The experiment was laid out in split-split design consisting of three factors, viz., factor-I harvest height (L₁-15 cm and L₂-30 cm), factor-II pruning interval (H₁-2 months and H₂-3 months) and factor-III foliar applications of biostimulants (N₁-0.25 per cent ZnSO₄, N₂-0.25 per cent FeSO₄, N₃-2 per cent seaweed extract and N₄-0.3 per cent humic acid) constituting sixteen treatment combination. Biometrical observations were made from randomly selected five plants and were subjected to statistical analysis. The result reveled that, among the two level of pruning, two interval of harvest and four levels of foliar nutrients registered the highest growth character viz., Plant height (127.84 cm), number of secondary branches (7.01), number of leaflets per leaf (16.60) and leaf area (10.79 cm²).It was also observed that the yield characters viz., leaf yield (643.00 g per plant) and estimated leaf yield (4492.77 kg per hectare) were observed to be the highest by the same treatment i.e. harvest at 30 cm height + 3 months harvest interval + application of 0.3 per cent humic acid.