Effect of different nitrogenous fertilizers on growth, flowering and Yield parameters of Custard apple (Annona squamosa L.)

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the “Effect of different nitrogenous fertilizers on growth, flowering and yield of Custard apple (Annona squamosa L.)”at the Demonstration-cum-Research Farm, Manjra, KVK, Latur during 2018-19. The experiment was carried out on the 8 years old Balanagar Custard apple with seven different sources of nitrogenous fertilizes viz. Urea (T1), Ammonium sulphate (T2), Sodium nitrate (T3), Ammonium chloride (T4), Neem coated urea (T5), Calcium ammonium nitrate (T6) and Calcium nitrate (T7) as treatments and replicated thrice and laid out in RBD. The maximum increase in plant height (0.96 m, 53.03%), stem girth (6.43 cm, 48.56%), plant spread (1.82 m2, 96.80% East-West and 1.92 m2, 96.96% North- South) and plant volume (3.80 m3, 376.23%) were recorded with the N application through neem coated urea per tree (T5). The minimum number of days (39.33) required for flowering, days required for fruit set (22.33) and days required from fruit set to maturity (71.67) were recorded with the application of N through ammonium sulphate (T2). Yield and yield contributing characters were viz. total number of fruits per tree (93.00), number of marketable fruits per tree (89.00), total yield (21.15 kg/tree and 8.46 t/ha) and marketable yield (20.24 kg/tree and 8.10 t/ha) were recorded with the N application through ammonium sulphate (T2).