Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 041
* Present address: Director, National Research Centre for Banana, Trichy 620 017
The treatments included conventional single sucker per pit, three and four suckers per pit at a spacing of 1.8 m × 3.6 m and 3.6 m × 3.6 m with 100, 75 and 50% of recommended dose of fertilizers. When compared to conventional planting, all the HDP treatments registered a reduction in bunch weight and bunch characters such as number of hands, number of fingers, finger weight and fruit quality. Between three and four suckers per hill plantings, three suckers per hill registered more bunch weight and bunch characters than the four suckers per hill. An overall assessment revealed that planting of three suckers per pit at 1.8 m × 3.6 m spacing with 50% of the recommended fertilizer dose was the best treatment in terms of registering maximum productivity per hectare.
