Effect of Foliar Feeding of Nutrients and Bioregulators on Yield and Quality Attributes of Litchi cv. Bombai

Abstract

Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) is considered as one of the most important sub-tropical fruits of the World. Under western part of Odisha, India, the litchi growers are facing problem of unstable and lower marketable yield and inferior quality due to higher incidence of fruit cracking, fruit drop, low sugar content and higher fruit acidity. Keeping in mind the positive effects of nutrients and bioregulators, the current study was conducted to elucidate their impact on fruit yield, and quality in the farmers field of Jamankira block in Sambalpur district of Odisha under Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, India. For the studies, eight years old litchi trees were selected. With 12 treatments, the experiment was set up in a randomized block design replicated thrice viz, T1: Spray treatment of Borax @ 0.5%; T2: Spray treatment of Borax @ 0.3%; T3: Spray treatment of ZnSO4 @ 0.75% ; T4: Spray treatment of ZnSO4 @ 0.5%; T5: Spray treatment of CaCl2 @ 0.5%; T6: Spray treatment of CaCl2 @ 0.1%; T7: Spray treatment of Humic acid @ 1.5%; T8: Spray treatment of Humic acid @ 1%; T9: Spray treatment of Seaweed extract @ 0.5%; T10: Spray treatment of Seaweed extract @ 0.1 %; T11: Foliar spray of NAA @ 20 ppm and T12 : Control (water spray).The current study compared foliar feeding of different nutrient and bioregulators treatments, which were applied during the first week of December, just after completion of new leaf formation and untreated control. The total number of fruits per plant was recorded highest in plants sprayed with ZnSO4 @ 0.5% (T4) followed by those treated with humic acid @ 1% (T8). The highest total fruit yield was recorded in plants with foliar feeding of 0.3% Borax (T2) which was found to be statistically similar to plants treated with seaweed extract @ 0.1% (T10)and seaweed extract @ 0.5% (T9).Among the treatments better response for higher number of marketable fruits and marketable yield was recorded in plants treated with both 0.3% Borax (T2) followed by 0.5% Zinc sulphate (T4), 1% Humic acid (T8) and 0.1% CaCl2 (T6) in litchi. Application of 1% Humic acid (T8) followed by 1.5% Humic acid (T9) enhanced the fruit set (%) and fruit retention (%) along with reduction in fruit drop (%). The enhanced fruit size (fruit length and fruit breadth) and higher fruit weight was obtained in plants treated with 0.3% Borax in litchi. The foliar application of 0.3% Borax (T2) had also resulted in higher TSS, total sugars, reducing sugar, lower acidity, highest aril weight and lower seed weight in litchi cv. Bombai.