Influence of drip fertigation on leaf NPK status and yield characters of aonla (Emblica officinalis Gaertn.) cv. NA-7

Abstract

A field experiment to study the influence of drip fertigation levels on Leaf NPK and yield characters in aonla was carried out during 2011 to 2013. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with eight treatments of fertigation levels, namely 75, 100 and 125% recommended dose of water soluble fertilizers including, soil application (control) and replicated three times, to test various leaf NPK content and yield attributes of 8 years aonla cv. NA.7 grown under drip fertigation. The investigation indicated that 125 % recommended dose of water soluble fertilizers (T8) applied through fertigation resulted in maximum leaf N, P and K during 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 vegetative, flowering and harvesting stages respectively. The yield attributing characters viz., number of fruits per plant (1420.40 and 2157.30), average fruit weight (40.5 g and 42.5g), fruit volume (2.12 cc and 2.32 cc) and yield per tree (57.33 kg and 91.69 kg) were also found to be higher in the same treatment than with soil application of recommended doses of NPK and higher dose fertigation. Therefore (T8) 125 % recommended doses of NPK in the form of water soluble fertilizers can be suggested for increasing the yield of eight years old aonla cv. NA.7 significantly.