Château-Musa - Bioversity International

The authors work at the
Corporación Colombiana de
Investigación Agropecuaria,
CORPOICA, Apartado Aéreo
1807, Armenia, Quindío,
Colombia.
Email: mamabb@uol.com.co;
corpoica@telesat.com.co.
Cultural practices
Grisales F. & T. Lescot. 1999. Encuesta diagnóstico
multifactorial sobre plátano en la zona cafetera central
de Colombia: una visión analítica de la realidad
agronómica del cultivo del plátano en la zona central.
Boletín Técnico FNCC No.18. Cenicafé, Colombia.
66pp.
Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural, Anuario
Estadístico del Sector Agropecuario y Pesquero.
1996. Oficina de información y estadística. Santafé de
Bogotá, D.C. p.60-62.
Effect of fertigation and irrigation on the yield of
high-density plantations of cv. ‘Robusta’
M. Mahalakshmi, N. Kumar and K. Soorianathasundaram
In many parts of India, banana cultivation
involves labour intensive practices such
as annual replanting to prevent nematode
infestation, manual irrigation and fertilization,
and weeding. These operations are expensive,
especially on large farms. One way to reduce
costs is by choosing high yielding clones and
adopting high density planting.
High density planting has been attempted,
with varying degrees of success, by reducing
interplant spacing (Jaramillo 1984, Franco and
Vega 1987). Another method of planting more
suckers per pit at a wider spacing also proved
successful in increasing productivity without
negatively affecting quality (Belalcazar et al.
1994, Apshara 1997). Fertigation can reduce
cost and improve productivity, as it efficiently
delivers nutrients and water, and reduces weed
infestation (Robinson 1996).
A quantity of 200:30:300 g of N:P:K per plant
has been found to improve yield of bananas in
trials conducted under the All India Coordinated
Research Project on Tropical Fruits sponsored
by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research,
New Delhi (Anon. 1989). In the present study,
we have attempted to formulate a fertigation
regime for higher productivity in high-density
plantations of ‘Robusta’ (Musa cv. AAA), one of
the most popular cultivars in India. It has high
yield potential and is amenable to high-density
planting (Robinson 1983).
Materials and methods
The field experiment was conducted at the
College Orchards, Tamil Nadu Agricultural
University, Coimbatore. The soil was sandy
loam with a pH of 8.15 and an electrical
conductivity of 0.219 dS/m. Corms of ‘Robusta’,
weighing 1.5 + 0.2 kg, were trimmed and
treated with a 0.01% Carbendizim solution for
42
Muñoz A.R. 1995. Fertilización de cultivos en clima medio.
Pp. 195-204 in Monómeros Colombo Venezolanos.
Barranquilla, Colombia.
Zake J.Y.K. 1993. Soil management sustainable banana
production on ferrasol in Uganda. Pp.14-18 in Africa
Crop Science Conference Proceedings, Vol.6 (E.
Adipala, M.A. Bekunda, J.S. Tenywa, M.W. Ogenga-
Latigo, J.O. Mugah, eds). African Crop Science
Society, Kampala, Uganda.
30 min. Pits of 60 x 60 x 30 cm were spaced 2 m
from each other within a row and 3 m between
rows. Three corms were planted in each pit
for a planting density of 2000 plants/acre
(4900 plants/ha).
The experiment was laid out in a factorial
randomized block design with three
replications. The irrigation levels tested were
50 liters/day, 40 liters/day and 30 liters/day.
Three concentrations of fertilizer were tested:
100% of the required N and K (200 g of N and
300 g of K per plant), 75% of the required N
and K (150 g of N and 200 g of K per plant),
and 50% of the required N and K (100 g of N
and 150 g of K per plant). A common dose of
90 g of P per pit was applied in all fertigation
treatments. Irrigation was scheduled daily.
Fertigation was scheduled at weekly interval
spread over a period of 38 weeks, starting from
the 9 th week after planting.
The drippers were designed such that the
pit received 30 liters per hour. Water soluble
fertilizers, i.e. mono-ammonium phosphate
(12:61:0) and potassium nitrate (13:0:46)
were used as the base source of nutrients,
whereas urea (46% N) and muriate of potash
(60% K 2 0) were used to supplement N and K
requirements.
The control consisted of channel irrigation
(80 mm water/ha) and a fertilizer dose of 200:
30:300 g of N:P:K per plant applied manually
(N and K in 3 times and P at the 3 rd month)
and the irrigation was scheduled once every
5-6 days.
Ninety-nine plants were used per treatment.
Observations were recorded on the 36 plants
located centrally in each block to avoid border
effects. Bunch weight, number of hands per
bunch, number of fingers per bunch, finger
weight, finger length and mid-circumference
InfoMusa - Vol 12 - No.1