RESPONSE OF SUGARCANE VARIETY LARKANA-2001 TO SOIL APPLICATION OF CERTAIN MACRO- AND MICRO-NUTRIENTS FOR CANE YIELD AND SUGAR RECOVERY

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during the year 2011-12 at the experimental field of Quaid- e-Awam Agriculture Research Institute Larkana to assess the effect macro- and micronutrients at various concentrations on cane yield and recovery of sugarcane variety Larkana-2001. The treatments included: Recommended dose of NPK fertilizers 225-112-168 ha-1 (control), NPK+Zn @ 5.0 kg ha-1, NPK+Zn @ 7.0 kg ha-1, NPK+B @ 1.5 kg ha-1, NPK+B @ 2.0 kg ha-1, NPK+Zn-B @ 5.0- 1.5 kg ha-1, NPK+Zn-B @ 5.0-2.0 kg ha-1, NPK+Zn-B @ 7.0-1.5 kg ha-1 and NPK+Zn-B @ 7.0-2.0 kg ha-1. The experiment was conducted in a three replicated Randomized Complete Block Design. The crop receiving recommended dose of NPK + 7.0+2.0 kg ha-1 Zn-B produced 75.54 percent germination, 303.00 cm cane length,3.33 cm cane girth, 6.33 tillers stool-1, 17.09 internodes cane-1, 16.24 kg weight of 10 canes, 101.06 t ha-1 cane yield and 11.05% sugar recovery. Sugarcane fertilized with NPK+Zn-B @ 7.0-1.5 kg ha-1 resulted in 75.09 percent germination, 302.00 cm cane length, 3.32 cm cane girth, 6.31 tillers stool-1, 17.04 internodes cane-1, 16.19 kg weight of 10 canes, 100.37 t ha-1 cane yield and 10.92% sugar recovery. The remaining treatments as well as control resulted relatively in lower values for all the cane yield and recovery contributing characters. Hence, it is concluded that Zn-B @ 7.0-1.5 kg ha-1 was an optimum level for achieving economically maximum cane yield (100.37 t ha-1) and recovery (10.92%); and the differences were non-significant (P>0.05) when boron application was increased to 2.0 kg ha-1 with same zinc level (7.0 kg ha-1) in addition to NPK fertilizers.