Standardization of fertilizer requirement through fertigation for coconut under Krishna Godavari zone of Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

An experiment on fertigation in coconut was conducted from 2007 to 2014 to standardize the fertilizer application through drip irrigation and to work out the economics. The experiment was laid out in twenty year old existing coconut garden cv. East Coast Tall in RBD comprising of six treatment combinations with four replications. With respect to mean nut yield, maximum yield of 92.7 nuts/palm was also recorded with 100% RDF through fertigation (T5) and it was on par with 75% RDF through fertigation (90.6 nuts/palm) (T4). Perusal of data on copra content revealed that, the highest copra content of 131.8 g/nut was recorded with 100% RDF through fertigation and was on par with the other fertigation treatment except T2 and control which was superior over control. The highest oil content was also recorded with 100% RDF through fertigation (64 %) and it was on par with 75% of RDF through fertigation (T4) and 100% of RDF as soil application (T6). From the study, it can be inferred that, application of 75 % RDF i.e., 375 g N, 240 g P2O5 and 1875 g K2O per palm per year through drip irrigation in eight splits from October to May resulted in higher nut yield per plam with the highest output-input ratio (2.69) when compared to control (1.79).