Water requirement and fertigation in high density planting of apples

Abstract

Water requirement of crop is essential for understanding of irrigation scheduling and efficient use of water. The investigation was carried out to study the growth, yield and effect of various fertigation levels and frequencies of high density apple during 2018-2019 at Experimental research farm of SKUAST-Kashmir, Srinagar. The FAO Penman Monteith method was used to determine Crop water requirement. Three fertigation levels (75, 100 and 125 percent of RDF) and three fertigation frequencies (weekly, twice a week and fortnightly) were used in this study. The study revealed that application of 125 per cent RDF as water soluble fertilizers through fertigation using drip system applied fortnightly increased the plant height (271.0 cm), tree spread (179.00 cm), plant volume (4.57 m3) and plant girth (30.02 mm). Fruit characters such as average fruit weight (135.80 g) and fruit diameter (9.05 cm) were significantly enhanced due to fortnightly application of 100 per cent RDF as fertilizer (water soluble) through drip. Application of RDF fortnightly (T9) recorded significantly higher fruit yield per tree (16.02 kg) than 125 percent of RDF (15.19 kg). Irrespective of fertilizer levels, fertigation frequency scheduled fortnightly registered higher fruit yield per tree. Control treatment (T1) recorded the lowest fruit yield per tree (6.11 kg). The increased percentage of fruit yield per tree over lower dose of RDF was 5.46. The results of this study revealed that scheduling of drip fertigation with 100 percent of RDF applied fortnightly could be optimal for getting higher fruit yield per tree.