Role of Potassium and Nitrogen on Growth, Yield and Quality of Turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) cv. “Suranjana” under Alluvial Plains of West Bengal

Abstract

The field experiment on turmeric was carried out at Horticultural Research Station, Mondouri, West Bengal of the Faculty of Horticulture, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya during 2012-13 and 2013-14 to evaluate the effect of potassium and nitrogen on turmeric cv. "Suranjana" for growth and yield. The design of the experiment was two factorial R.B.D with 8 treatments and three replications. The treatments consisted of four levels of potassium (K 2 O @ 80, 120, 160 and 200 kg/ha) and two spray schedule of N @ 2% as foliar spray of urea. Results obtained in the present investigation reveal that the maximum vegetative growth parameters like plant height (149.72 cm), number of tillers per plant (3.23) and number of leaves per plant (18.40) were recorded with the application of potassium and nitrogen i.e, K 2 O @ 200 kg/ha + N @ 2% double spray as compared with sole effect of both the nutrients. Yield and yield attributing characters were also found to be influenced much with the application of potassium and nitrogen. Application of K 2 O @ 200 kg/ha + N @ 2% double spray also proved beneficial and showed significant variation in mother rhizome production, primary rhizome and secondary rhizome per clump. The sole application of K 2 O @ 200 kg/ha also proved effective towards the number of primary rhizomes. The combined application of K 2 O @ 200 kg/ha + N @ 2% double spray indicated better rhizome production through improvement of length and weight as also secondary rhizome production per clump. The application of K 2 O @ 200 kg/ha + N @ 2% double spray recorded significant influence on the yield per hectare (36.82 t/ha). The sole application of potassium and nitrogen also showed significant variation with respect to yield per hectare. A progressive increase with the oleoresin content of turmeric was recorded with the increasing doses of potassium and the number of sprays of nitrogen. However, the highest oleoresin content was recorded from the treatment NS 2 K 4 (10.50%). The curcumin content also influence significantly with sole application of potassium and nitrogen. The application of K 2 O@160 kg/ha+N@2% single spray recorded higher curcumin content (6.19%) of turmeric as compared to double spray of N.