Yield and quality attributes of elephant foot yam [Amorphophallus paeoniifolius (Dennst) nicolson] as influenced by corm size and integrated nutrient management practices

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of size of minisett corm and integrated nutrient management (INM) practices on yield and quality attributes of elephant foot yam at the instructional farm of College of Agriculture, Vellayani, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala over two seasons during April-November 2018 and April-November 2019. The treatments consisted of three minisett corm sizes (S₁: 200 g, S₂: 300 g and S₃: 400 g) and five INM practices (I₁: 100% NPK, I₂: 75% NPK with 50% N substitution through coir pith compost, I₃: 75% NPK with 50% N substitution through coir pith compost + PGPR mix-I + AMF, I₄: 50% NPK with 50% N substitution through coir pith compost, I₅: 50% NPK with 50% N substitution through coir pith compost + PGPR mix-I + AMF) and a control (1 kg). The results indicated that the minisett corm size 400 g (S₃) recorded the highest corm yield per ha. Among different INM practices, application of 75 per cent NPK with 50 per cent N substitution through coir pith compost + PGPR mix-I + AMF recorded higher corm yield per hectare and among all the treatments, application of 100 per cent NPK (I₁) as chemical fertilizers recorded significantly the highest corm yield per hectare. The lowest oxalate content was recorded in the application of 50 per cent NPK with 50 per cent N substitution through coir pith compost with or without biofertilizers. The highest content of oxalic acid was found in I₁ wherein 100 per cent NPK was applied as chemical fertilizer.