Integrated Application of Ethrel and Microbial Consortia: Effect on Dry Matter Accumulation, Its Partitioning, and Nutrients Uptake in Late-planted Sugarcane Under Subtropical Indian Condition

Abstract

Late (summer) planting of sugarcane is very much common in subtropical India. Due to the adoption of sugarcane–ratoon–wheat cropping system in the region, sugarcane planting is delayed. Delay in planting of sugarcane reduces the period of tillering. Thus to improve tillering, growth, and yield of late-planted sugarcane, a field experiment was conducted to assess the four levels of seed cane material (S1: conventional 3 bud setts, S2: sett soaking in water for 4 h S3: sett soaking in 100 ppm ethrel solution for 4 h and S4: foliar application of 100 ppm ethrel and mixture of 1% urea on seed cane, one week before planting) and two levels of NPK fertilizers with and without microbial consortia (M1: 50% of recommended NPK with microbial consortia (Pseudomonas fluorescens (phosphate-solubilizing bacteria) + Gluconacetobacter + Trichoderma); M2: Recommended NPK (150 kg ha−1, 25 kg ha−1, 50 kg ha−1 without microbial consortia). Foliar spray of ethrel increased total N uptake by 47.27% at the harvest stage (145.9 kg ha−1). An improvement of 36.40% in P accumulation was recorded with foliar application of ethrel on seed cane as compared to control during the tillering phase. However, P improvement in stalk increased to the level of 18.71 kg ha−1 at harvest stage. Foliar spray of ethrel accumulated 33.04% higher K than control (124.4 kg a−1) at harvest. About 26.16% improvement in individual cane weight was recorded with foliar application of ethrel. Thus, foliar application of ethrel improved sugarcane (73.15 t ha−1) and sugar yield (8.55 t ha−1). Integrated use of microbial consortia and 50% of recommended NPK could bring forth 9.85% (68.48 t ha−1) and 7.86% (8.10 t ha−1) improvement in sugarcane and sugar yields over the recommended NPK in summer-planted sugarcane in subtropical India.