Effect of high density planting and nutrient management on growth and yield of Banana cv. Jahaji (Musa, AAA)

Abstract

High Density planting (HDP) is one of the recent and novel concepts of increasing the productivity without affecting the quality of fruits. The HDP has been successfully implicated in many fruit crop including banana. This study was conducted at the Experimental Farm, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat with an objective to determine the growth, yield and nutrient requirement of banana under high density planting system. The treatments comprised of T1, T2, T3: 2 suckers/hill at 2 m×3 m with 100 %, 75 %, 50 % RDF; T4, T5, T6: 3 suckers/hill at 2 m × 3 m with 100 %, 75 %, 50 % RDF; T7, T8, T9: 2 sucker at 1.8 m × 3.6 m with 100 %, 75 %, 50 % RDF; T10, T11, T12: 3 sucker at 1.8 m × 3.6 m with 100 %, 75 %, 50 % RDF and T13: 1sucker at 1.5 m × 1.5 m with 100 % RDF. All the High Density Planting registered more height than the control and was maximum at T4 (184.80 cm).The plant girth decreased with increase in number of sucker per hill. It was highest in T13 (74.10 cm) and lowest in T4 (53.30 cm). Total number of leaves increased in all the HDP treatments. It was found maximum in T4 (26.64 no). All the HDP treatment having 2 and 3 sucker per hill, recorded more number of functional leaves than the control. Treatment T6 recorded the lowest shooting harvest interval. All the HDP treatments recorded reduced bunch weight, number of hands per bunch, number of fingers per hands and finger length butt the weight of second hand (2.93 kg) and yield (80.23 t/ha) was found highest in T6. An overall assessment revealed that planting of 3 suckers per hill at 2 m × 3 m with 50 % RDF (T6) is the best treatment under agro-climatic condition of Assam.