Growth and Yield of Potato as Influenced by Sources and Time of Fertilizer Application Under Rainfed Condition

A field experiment was conducted during kharif 2009 at Agricultural College Farm, Karekere, Hassan in sandy loamy soil to study the effect of different sources and time of fertilizer application on growth and yield of potato under rainfed condition. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with twelve treatments replicated thrice. The plant height, number of tubers, dry matter accumulation both in haulm and tuber was significantly increased by application recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF) compared to farmers practice and application of farm yard manure alone. The potato tuber yield (16.50 t ha⁻¹) with the application fertilizers as per the farmers practice (6 bags of 20:20:0:13 and 50 kg urea ha⁻¹) and FYM @ 25 t ha⁻¹ alone (10.92 t ha⁻¹) was significantly lower than that obtained with application of RDF from different sources and time of application along with FYM @ 25 t ha⁻¹ (20.64 to 22.24 t ha⁻¹). However, the highest tuber yield of 22.24 t ha ⁻¹ was obtained with the application of RDF through DAP, urea and MSOP along with FYM 25 t ha ⁻¹ which was at par with the tuber yield recorded in other RDF treatments.