Effect of NPK, boron and sulphur on growth and yield of passion fruit

Abstract

India is bestowed with a wide range of soil and agro-climatic conditions. Therefore, almost all types of fruit can be grown in one or the other parts of the country. China is the largest producer of fruits followed by India which now accounts for about 10 per cent of world production. Passion fruit belongs to the family Passifloracea, distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. There is need to improve and standardize the nutrient doses by which we increase the production of this fruit. Keeping with these views, the experiment was conducted in the experimental farm, Department of Horticulture, BAU, Ranchi. This experiment consisted of ten treatments including control. The treatments were NPK (300: 150:150 g/vine), NPK (250: 125:125 g/vine), boron 1.2 g/vine, sulphur 24 g/vine, the next four treatments were combination of NPK with boron and sulphur, and two controls. Thus, there were ten treatments, replicated thrice in Randomized Block Design. In all the treatments 2 kg of vermicompost and 0.5 kg of lime were applied as basal dose except absolute control. All the treatments exhibited better results over untreated control and absolute control. Highest yield (56.65 q/ha) was obtained by NPK (250: 125:125 g/vine) + boron 1.2 g/vine which was at par with, NPK (300: 150:150 g/vine) + boron 1.2 g/vine (49.15 q/ha) and NPK (250: 125:125 g/vine) + sulphur 24 g/vine (52.48 q/ha). Thus, NPK (250: 125:125 g/ vine ) + boron 1.2 g/vine appeared to be the best treatment in vegetative character, reproductive characters, fruit characters and yield followed by NPK (250:125:125 g/ vine) + sulphur 24 g/vine.