EFFECT OF TRASH MULCH AND N LEVELS ON CANE YIELD AND RECOVERY OF SUGARCANE VARIETY THATTA-10

Abstract

A field trial was conducted during the year 2009-10 to investigate the effect of trash mulch and various N levels on the cane yield and recovery of sugarcane variety Thatta-10. The treatments included: Control (No mulch, 225 kg N ha-1), trash mulch + 225 kg N ha-1 , trash mulch + 250 kg N ha-1 , trash mulch + 275 kg N ha-1 and trash mulch + 300 kg N ha-1 . The experiment was laid out in a three replicated randomized complete block design in a plot size of 14m x 3m (42m2). The results revealed that regardless the N levels, the mulching showed positive and significant impact on cane yield and recovery of sugarcane variety Thatta-10. However, trash mulch + 250 kg N ha-1 treatment resulted economically superior performance over rest of the treatments with 64 percent germination, 246 cm cane length, 2.67 cm cane girth, 22.2 internodes cane-1 , 117.67 tons ha-1 cane yield and 10.90 percent sugar recovery. It was concluded that systematically applied trash mulch showed positive impact on all the studied traits of sugarcane variety Thatta-10 including cane yield and recovery. Moreover, higher N levels of 300 and 275 kg ha-1 slightly increases cane length, but cane girth, internodes, cane yield and recovery decreased over 250 kg ha-1 N level. This indicates that for obtaining economically maximum crop performance for sugarcane variety Thatta-10, the sugarcane may be trash-mulched and N may be applied at the rate of 250 kg ha-1 .