Indian Journal of Horticulture

A field experiment was conducted on alluvial sandy loam soils of Jorhat, Assam, India for three consecutive years (2010 to 2012) to evaluate the economical feasibility of fertigation and mulching on 4-year-old Assam lemon. The growth and yield of plants under 50 μm thick black plastic mulch was studied using four levels of fertigation applied at 120, 100 and 80% of recommended dose of fertilizer through drip. Soil application of fertilizers with recommended dose and no mulch was used for comparison and the results showed that 8.47 to 22.05% yield increase due to fertigation. Among the different fertigation levels, 120% of recommended dose with black plastic mulch gave the highest yield. The treatments with black plastic mulch showed 14.56 to 20.53% higher yield over non-mulched treatment. Highest net seasonal income of 2,31,644 per ha was obtained for the treatment, where 120% of recommended dose of fertilizer was applied through drip irrigation and lemon plants were mulched with black plastic mulch. However best benefit: cost ratio (4.17) was observed for the treatment where 80% of recommended dose of fertilizer was applied through fertigation and plants were not mulched. The fruit weight, volume and juice content studied during the experimentation showed significantly better results for lemon plants subjected to fertigation and black plastic mulching. The study revealed that fertigation can play a positive role in increasing productivity of Assam lemon with additional benefit of saving in fertilizer and labour cost and fruit quality improvement.