Influence of fertigation on growth and yield using varying rates and sources of fertilizers on chilli hybrid in open field condition

The experiment was conducted to study the effect of fertigation on the performance of chilli F₁ Hybrid ‘Arka Khyati’ at the ICAR Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru during kharif of 2017 and 2018. Ten treatments comprising of varying doses, sources and frequency of fertilizer application were laid out in Randomized Block Design and replicated thrice. Pooled analysis of two years’ data revealed that at 80 days after transplanting, bi-weekly fertigation @ 125:100:125 kg N: P₂O₅:K₂O ha^-1 using water soluble fertilizers in highest resulted values for plant height (78.78 cm) and number of branches plant (10.88). This treatment also recorded maximum values for number of fruits plant^-1 (132.00), fruit length (9.76 cm), fruit girth (3.95 cm), ten fruit fresh weight (66.00 g), ten fruit dry weight (10.60 g) and yield (34.00 t ha^-1). All the fertigation treatments recorded higher yields over the conventional soil application of fertilizers to the tune of 3.63 to 76.6 per cent. Biweekly application of 100 % fertilizer dose of 125:100:125 kg N: P₂O₅:K₂O ha^-1 through fertigation resulted in the maximum net income (Rs. 431351 ha^-1) and higher benefit cost ratio (1.73) whereas the conventional soil application of common fertilizers resulted in minimum net income (Rs.166454 hectare^-1) and benefit cost ratio of 0.76.