Determination of optimum fertilizer and spacing requirement for sustaining higher growth and fibre yield of Indian ramie (Boehmeria nivea)

A field experiment was conducted during 1997–2000 on medium fertile, sandy-loam acidic soil of Ramie Research station, Sorbhog, Assam, to study the effect of fertilizer and spacing on growth and fibre yield of ramie [Boehmeria nivea (L.) Gaud.] cv. ‘R 1411’. Total 14 cuttings could be taken in the order of 2,5, 4 and 3 cuttings in the 1 st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th year respectively. The highest fibre yield of 164 to 650 kg/ha/cutting was recorded with 40:20:20 kg NPK/ha/cutting of whereas the lowest spacing, i.e. 20 cm x 40 cm resulted in the highest fibre yield/cutting ranging between 172 and 654 kg/ha/cutting, may be due to accommodation of higher cane numbers per unit area. Interaction of fertilizer and spacing showed that 40:20:20 kg/ha/cutting of NPK along with 20 cm x 40 cm spacing resulted in the highest fibre yield per cutting (184–690 kg/ha/cutting) which was at par with fibre yield (179–687 kg/ha/cutting) obtained with 30:15:15 kg/ha/cutting of NPK with 20 cm x 40 cm spacing. Second year of the plantation provided the highest total fibre yield of 2,469 kg/ha with 40:20:20 kg/ha of NPK along with 20 cm x 40 cm spacing. Regarding the cutting-wise fibre yield, it was observed that 2 cutting (July) gave the highest fibre yield (597kg/ha/cutting) followed by 3rd, 1st and 4 cutting in descending order.