Effect of Fertigation on Banana Biometric Characteristics and Fertilizer Use Efficiency

Study was conducted at the Horticultural Experimental Farm, Birauli, Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa during 1998–1999 to find out effect of the different doses of fertilizer under fertigation on phenological characteristics such as plant height, plant girth, root development; on fruiting time and bunch characteristics as well as saving in fertilizer. The obtained results revealed that, treatment T1 with 100% of recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF), NPK under drip fertigation gave highest values of plant height, plant girth and average number of leaves followed by treatment T2 with 80% of RDF Also, this treatment caused earlier bunch shooting, bunch harvesting as well as fruiting time. The highest bunch weight, number of hands/bunch and number of fingers/bunch with best finger quality (weight, length and diameter) were recorded in Tl. Lower values were obtained in treatment with T3 with 60% RDF in drip irrigated treamnent and T4 with 100% of RDF under traditional method of fertilizer application. Maximum yield of banana was obtained in treatment T₁ (95.2 t.ha⁻¹) followed by T₂ (87.6 t.ha⁻¹), T₄ (76.4 t.ha⁻¹) and T₃ (73.1 t.ha⁻¹). The treatment T₁ and T₂ gave 24.5% and 14.6% more yield, respectively in comparison to control treatment. The result indicated that application of only 65% of RDF can give the yield at par with conventional cultivation. The water and fertilizer use efficiency was about 25% higher for drip fertigated plot in comparison to check basin method of irrigation and fertilizer application through soil manipulation method.