CHANDEL, J.S.VERMA, PRAMOD2017-07-272017-07-272017http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810026329ABSTRACT The present investigation entitled“Studies on the effect of drip irrigation and fertigation in peach (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch.) cv. Redhaven” was carried out on five-year old peach trees duringthe years 2015 and 2016 in the integrated horticultural based farming system modelfarm of Dr Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan (H.P.), India. The two experiments were conducted during the course of study. The first experiment consisted of five irrigation treatments viz. drip irrigation at 100, 80 and 60 % ETc, basin irrigation at 100 % ETc and rainfed (control), and each treatment was replicated five times. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Block Design. Drip irrigation at 100 and 80 per cent ETc significantly increased growth,yield, fruit quality parameters and leaf nutrient contents as compared to basin irrigation and control. The results revealed that drip irrigation at 100 per cent ETc recorded maximum increase in tree height, tree spread, tree volume, trunk girth and highest annual shoot growth, fruit yield and proportion of three layer grade fruits. The fruit quality parameters in terms of fruit length and diameter, fruit weight and volume, total soluble solids and sugars content were also found highest in drip irrigation at 100 per cent ETc treatment. The trees irrigated with drip irrigation at 100 % ETc also significantly increased leaf macro (N, P, K, Ca and Mg) and micro (Fe, Zn,Mn and Cu) nutrient contents than basin irrigation and control. The highest total water requirement (93.23 and 108.78 cm/tree during 2015 and 2016, respectively) was recorded in trees subjectedto basin irrigation at 100 per cent ETc treatment,however, the maximum water-use-efficiency was found in drip irrigation at 80 % ETc treatment during both the years. Drip irrigation at 100 % ETc registered 21.22, 16.07, 17.72 and 24.02 per cent increase in tree height, trunk girth, annual shoot growth and yield, respectively, over basin irrigation method of irrigation and also produced better size and quality fruits. The second experiment consist of eight treatment combinations consisting of four levels of fertilizer concentration viz. Recommended dose (RD) of NPK through soil, 100, 80 and 60 per cent of RD of NPK through drip, and two levels of dripirrigation (drip irrigation at 100 and 80 % ETc). The results revealed that treatment combination of fertigation at 100and 80 per cent of RD of NPK and drip irrigation at 100 per cent ETc significantly increased tree height, tree spread, trunkgirth and annual shoot growth, fruit yield, proportion of three layer grade fruits, fruit length and diameter, fruit weight and volume, TSS, sugars and leaf nutrient contents in comparison to soil fertilization. Although fertigation at 100 % RD of NPK incombination with drip irrigation at 100 % ETc attained maximum vegetativegrowth and produced highest yield of better quality fruits, but was found statistically at par with fertigation at 80 % RD of NPK in combination with drip irrigation at 100 % ETc, which resulted in 10.31 and 17.19 per cent increase in tree height, 12.16 and 19.83 per cent increase in yield over soil fertilization with maximum fertilizer-use-efficiency of 7.97 and 12.00 q/ha/q during 2015 and 2016, respectively.ennullThesis