STUDIES ON THE INFLUENCE OF ORGANIC MANURES AND BIO-FERTILIZERS ON PLANT GROWTH, YIELD, QUALITY AND STORAGE OF DRAGON FRUIT [Hylocereus undatus (Haworth) Britton & Rose and Hylocereus polyrhizus (F. A. C. Weber) Britton & Rose]
Loading...
Date
2022-04-07
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore
Abstract
An experiment was conducted to study the influence of organic manures and bio-fertilizers on plant growth, yield, quality and storage of dragon fruit during the years 2019 to 2021. The experiment consisted of thirteen treatments and replicated thrice using randomized complete block design (RCBD). The pooled data from two successive years for red fleshed dragon fruit revealed that treatment T13 comprising of 100 per cent N through vermicompost + PSB at 10 kg ha-1+ VAM at 10 kg ha-1 had significantly greater impact on parameters like plant height (409.85 cm), number of branches per plant (9.43), plant spread in N-S (180.96 cm), E-W (168.33 cm) directions, days to first flower open (418.74 days), duration of flowering (9.61 hours), length of the fruit (9.68 cm), diameter of fruit (9.37 cm), weight of the fruit (497.91 gm), volume of the fruit (420.10 cc), number of fruits per plant (37.50), fruit yield (93.42 t ha-1), TSS (11.56˚B), Vit-C (9.57 mg 100g-1), acidity (0.36 %), shelf life (9.71 days) having benefit cost ratio of 3.81 and maximum overall acceptability score was recorded in treatment T5 (3.34). White fleshed type dragon fruit also showed similar results and recorded superior values for plant height (396.73 cm), number of branches per plant (9.32), plant spread in N-S (175.00 cm), E-W (170.16 cm) directions, days to first flower open (441.77 days), maximum duration of flowering (9.32 hours), length of the fruit (9.55 cm), diameter of fruit (8.74 cm), weight of the fruit (430.70 gm), volume of the fruit (415.41 cc), number of fruits per plant (33.42), fruit yield (72.26 t ha-1), TSS (10.35˚B), Vit-C (7.39 mg 100g-1), acidity (0.38 %), shelf life (9.70 days) withbenefit cost ratio of 3.78 and maximum overall acceptability score of 3.95 was given to treatment T12.