Effect of pruning intensity and foliar nutrition on growth, yield and quality of phalsa cv. Sharbati

Abstract

The experiment was conducted with two factors, viz., pruning intensity (A1-30 cm and A2-60 cm) and nutrients (B1- control, B2-ZnSO4 0.5%, B3- CuSO4 0.5%, B4- K2SO4 0.5% and B5- urea 2%). The results revealed the significantly highest number of shoots per plant (33.33), length of shoot (140.45cm), girth of shoot (0.91cm), inter-nodal length (6.41 cm), number of fruiting nodes per plant (18.96), fruiting nodes per shoot (18.84), number of fruits per node (16.75), weight of 50 fruits (46.81g), fruit yield per plant (3.95 kg) and the juice content (50.91%), total soluble solids (28.04°Brix), ascorbic acid (36.28 mg/100 g pulp) and total sugars (16.80%) with lowest titratable acidity (1.82%) in treatment A2B2 (60 cm + ZnSO4 0.5%). Further, it was found that the treatment A2B2 (60 cm + ZnSO4 0.5%) proved to be the most effective treatment to improve the growth, yield and fruit quality traits of phalsa cv. Sharbati.