Assessing micronutrient management and fertilizer doses on soil and foliar properties and yield in Dashehari mango grown orchard soils of subtropical region

Abstract

Fertilizer management for enhancing fruit yield of mango is needed in orchards of Lucknow region for better livelihood security of mango growers. Micronutrients and fertilizer doses were impacting on soil properties, leaf tissue nutrient contents as well as yield as evidenced from the field experiment. A range of 9.08 to 12.74 t ha-1 mango cv. Dashehari was recorded. Soil properties were impacted and varied across surface and sub-surface soil depths. The highest and lowest content of Mn, Fe, Cu and Zn was recorded as 24.60, 13.30, 2.07 and 9.71 mg kg-1 in surface soils and 11.04, 5.67, 0.58 and 2.16 mg kg-1 in sub-surface soils across treatments respectively. Soil organic carbon, P and K contents in surface soil had 0.55%, 20.48 and 196.46 mg kg-1 while sub-surface soils had 0.25%, 11.602 and 135.0 mg kg-1 respectively. Higher foliar nutrient content of N, P and K was recorded as 1.97, 0.121 and 1.25% while that of micronutrients 210.75, 87.92, 31.83 and 28.92 mg kg-1 Fe, Mn, Cu and Zn respectively. Inclusion of micronutrients + NPK+ FYM or replacing the doses of NPK by half and inclusion of micronutrients + biofertilizer/green manuring may sustain the mango productivity of this region.