Effect of foliar application of nutrients and growth regulators on fruit cracking and quality of Eureka lemon under rainfed conditions

Abstract

An experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with 13 treatments, consisting of foliar sprays of K2SO4 (6.0, 8.0 and 10%), CaCl2 (0.5, 0.75 and 1%), 2,4-D (20, 30 and 40 ppm), NAA (20, 30 and 40 ppm) and control (10 ppm GA3 ) and each treatment replicated thrice. Among the various treatments, spray of 40 ppm NAA was found to be most effective for minimizing fruit cracking (13.06%) as compared to other treatments and this treatment also recorded maximum fruit length (5.45 cm), fruit breadth (5.22 cm), fruit weight (71.38 g), pulp weight (37.47 g), rind weight (17.55 g), rind thickness (2.64 mm) specific gravity (1.02), Juice content (50.97%), TSS (7.9oBrix), acidity (5.77%) and ascorbic acid (50.76 mg/100 ml). Among the nutrients, minimum fruit cracking (17.96%) was noticed with the application of 10% K2SO4 and this treatment also recorded the maximum fruit length (5.42 cm), fruit breadth (5.09 cm), fruit weight (67.10 g), pulp weight (36.20 g), rind weight (16.30 g), rind thickness (2.54 mm), Juice content (48.94%), TSS (7.6°B), acidity (5.67%) and ascorbic acid (50.68 mg/100 ml).