MSc

The study entitled “Foliar nutrition of secondary and micronutrients for
enhancing growth, yield and quality in passion fruit (Passiflora edulis f.edulis Sims.)”
was conducted in Department of Fruit Science, College of Agriculture Vellayani, from
2019 April to 2020 April. Micronutrients and secondary nutrients play a major role in
crop production due to their essentiality in plant metabolism and adverse effect that
manifest due to their deficiency. The present work was undertaken to assess the effect
of foliar application of secondary and micronutrients on growth, yield and quality of
passionfruit.
The field experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design (RBD) with
11 treatments and 3 replications. 134P, variety was used for the research purpose.
Treatments were T1- Borax (0.5%), T2 - Zinc sulphate (0.5%) T3 - Calcium nitrate
(0.5%), and T4 – Magnesium sulphate (0.5%), T5 - T1 + T2 + T3. T6 – T1 + T2+ T4.
T7 - T1 + T3 + T4. T8 - - T2 + T3 + T4. T9 – T1 + T2+ T3+ T4. T0 –Water spray and
T11 – Control (Ad hoc POP). Treatments from T1 to T10 were applied at bimonthly
interval starting from first flowering up to 12 months after planting. Organic manure
(10 kg FYM plant-1
) and NPK (25: 10: 25 g plant-1
year-1
) were given uniformly to all
treatments as soil application as per Ad hoc POP recommendation.
Treatment with foliar application of Borax (0.5%), Zinc sulphate (0.5%) and
Calcium nitrate (0.5%) and Magnesium sulphate (0.5%), increased the biometric
parameters like plant girth from flowering to 12 MAPS. Number of flowers per month
and total flower production were also enhanced.
From the present investigation, it was found that foliar application of Borax
(0.5%), Zinc sulphate (0.5%) along with Calcium nitrate (0.5%), Magnesium sulphate
(0.5%), reduced the number of days for first fruiting, duration from flowering to
harvest of passion fruit.
The results indicated that yield characters such as fruit weight, pulp weight,
fruit girth, fruit diameter, rind weight., seed weight,100 seed weight, rind thickness,
number of fruits per vine and total fruit per vine were highest with the combined
application of Borax, Zinc sulphate, Calcium nitrate and Magnesium sulphate @ 0.5%
respectively as foliar spray, rind and pulp colour were also improved for the same
treatment.
With regard to qualitative attributes studied TSS, total carotenoids, ascorbic
acid, total sugar, reducing sugar, sugar: acid ratio were shown positive response with
the spray of Borax (0.5%), Zinc sulphate (0.5%), Calcium nitrate (0.5%) along with
Magnesium sulphate @ 0.5% however, reduction in acidity was found with the same
treatment. The foliar application of Borax (0.5%), Zinc sulphate (0.5%) Calcium
nitrate (0.5%) and Magnesium sulphate @ 0.5% increased the organoleptic qualities
like appearance, colour, texture, taste, flavour and overall acceptability. Shelf life of
papaya fruits were longer with the same treatment.
From this study it was observed that soil parameters like soil pH,EC and
organic carbon, did not show any significant variation but available nitrogen,
phosphorous, potassium, calcium, magnesium, boron and zinc show significant
variation with the foliar application of secondary and micronutrients.
Data from the plant analysis and fruit analysis of passionfruit showed that
nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, magnesium, boron and zinc and content
was highest with the foliar application of Borax (0.5%), Zinc sulphate (0.5%) Calcium
nitrate (0.5%) and Magnesium sulphate @ 0.5%.
Brown spot incidence were observed in the passion fruit field. Proper plant
protection measures controlled the infestation which was less than 1 percent.
The highest net income and benefit cost ratio was observed with the foliar
application of Borax (0.5%), Zinc sulphate (0.5%) and Calcium nitrate (0.5%) and
Magnesium sulphate @ 0.5%.
From the above findings, it was concluded that foliar application of Borax
(0.5%), Zinc sulphate (0.5%), Calcium nitrate (0.5%) and Magnesium sulphate
(0.5%), at bimonthly interval after planting along with the application of organic
manure (10 kg FYM plant-1
) and NPK (25: 10: 25 g plant-1
year-1
) had increased the
growth, yield and quality characteristics of passionfruit and it was economically viable
too