Effect of different levels of fertilizer and plant spacing on yield of taro (Colocasia esculenta L.) under Marathwada conditions

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out during the year 2023-2024 and it was set up in a Factorial Randomized Block Design (FRBD) with three treatments replicated thrice with 09 treatment combinations. Three levels of fertilizer dose viz., F1 [100% recommended dose of NPK (80:60:60 kg/ha), F2 [125% of recommended dose of NPK (100:75:75 kg/ha), F3 [75% of recommended dose of NPK (60:45:45 kg/ha) and three levels of plant spacing viz., S1 (60 cm x 45 cm), S2 (60 cm x 60 cm), S3 (60 cm x 30 cm) were used as treatment variables. The yield and quality attributes of taro viz., Number of corms per plant (2.90), corm length (8.93 cm), corm diameter (6.66 cm), weight of corms per plant (289.55 g), number of cormels plant-1 (41.90), weight of cormels plant-1 (351.59 g), cumulative herbage yield (357.15 g plant-1) was found significantly superior in treatment combination F2S2 [125% of RDF (100:75:75 kg/ha at 60 x 60 cm spacing). Whereas cumulative herbage yield (144.31 q ha-1) and total corm and cormel yield (263.22 q ha-1) was found significantly superior in treatment combination F2S3 [75% of RDF (60:45:45 kg/ha at 60 x 30 cm spacing) than rest of the treatment combinations under study.