Effect of foliar application of micronutrients on persimmon fruit quality and yield

Abstract

In the present research work forty five trees of persimmon having uniform height and canopy were evaluated against five treatments (T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5) to determine the efficiency of micronutrients foliar spray on the yield and yield attributes. The experiment was conducted at a farmer’s field in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Micronutrients concentration was measured before and after foliar spray. Mixed application of micronutrients i.e. T5 (30 ZnSO4, Borax 20 and 40 g FeSO4) gave the highest persimmon yield (148.9 kg tree-1) with an increase of 7.73% over control followed by T4 with an increase of 6.15% over control. Micronutrients application in comparison with the control also improved number of fruits tree -1 , fruit weight and fruit diameter. The response of the lone application of micronutrients were in the order Zn >Fe > B. Moreover micronutrients spray also produced lush green shiny leaves and improved the fruit quality significantly by increasing Zinc, Iron and Boron contents. On the basis of our findings combined application of micronutrients (T5) along with other fertilizers are recommended as a most efficient and cost effective method to improve the quality and yields of persimmon.