Optimising combinations of different nutrient sources for organic banana farming

Abstract

An experiment was conducted with ‘Grand Naine’ banana under organic cultivation for developing a strategy to sustain long-term fertility and health of soil and to enhance banana yield, fruit quality and fruit shelf-life. The experiment consisted of four treatments in a completely randomized block design with three replications, each consisting of 40 plants over two seasons. In all the four treatments, a uniform nutrient dosage of 200 g N + 100 g P2O5 + 300 g K2O was applied per plant but through application of different combinations of various organic manures as well as pure inorganic fertilizer source as a control. The treatments included: T1 – 10 kg farmyard manure (FYM) + 1.25 kg neem cake (NC) + 5 kg vermicompost (VC) + 3.75 kg of wood ash (WA) plant‑1, T2 – 5 kg poultry manure (PM) + 1 kg groundnut cake (GC) + 3 kg rural compost (RC) + 3.5 kg WA plant‑1, T3 – 10 kg sugarcane pressmud (SP) + 1 kg castor cake (CC) + 5 kg RC + 4 kg WA plant‑1, and T4 – 435 g urea + 500 g single super phosphate + 500 g muriate of potash plant‑1. A more precise match in nutrient release from the soil with uptake by the plants was noticed in T2 than the other organic treatments. At harvesting, the T2 recorded bunch weight of 25.3 kg which was on a par with that of 100% inorganic fertilizer application (25.9 kg). The same treatment (T2) recorded higher values of fruit quality parameters and optimum levels of soil biological properties. Thus, the combination of 5 kg PM + 1 kg GC + 3 kg RC + 3.5 kg WA plant‑1 was adjudged to be optimum for organic banana farming.