Growth, yield and quality of dragon fruit as influenced by NPK fertilization

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out to delineate the best performing combinational doses of NPK on Dragon fruit (Hylocereus costaricensis) cv. Royal Moroccan Red with eight fertilizer treatments viz., T1-N250 P2O5 150 K2O 100 g/pillar: T2-N 300 P2O5 200 K2O 150 g/pillar; T3-N 350 P2O5 250 K2O 200 g/pillar; T4-N 400 P2 O5 K2O 250 g/pillar; T5-N 450 P2O5 250 K2O 300 g/pillar: T6-N 500 P2O5 K2O 350 g/pillar; T7-N550 P2O5 450 K2O400 g/pillar and T8-Control. Organic manure @ 20 kg/pillar containing four plants was also applied. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with four replications under the new alluvial zone of west Bengal. There was significant difference in terms of plant height (cladode length), number of fruits, average individual fruit weight, fruit size, TSS, other quality attributes, moisture and dry matter content of cladode and fruit pulp and fruit yield. The maximum number of fruits per pillar (68.00), average individual fruit weight (222.03 g), and fruit yield (24.15 t/ha) were observed in T5. The minimum number of fruits per pillar (23.75) and fruit yield (5.61 t/ha) and lowest average individual fruit weight (152.28 g) were found in control in (T8). The highest TSS (18.58o B) was recorded in control and lowest (16.65o B) in T2.