RESPONSE OF SUGARCANE VARIETY LARKANA-2001 TO SOIL APPLICATION OF CERTAIN MACRO- AND MICRO-NUTRIENTS FOR CANE YIELD AND SUGAR RECOVERY

• Published in: Pakistan sugar journal 2014-10, Vol.29 (4), p.9
• Main Authors: Sohu, Imdad Ali, Saleem, M, Memon, Hameed
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1028-1193

A field experiment was conducted during the year 2011-12 at the experimental field of Quaid-e-Awam Agriculture Research Institute Larkana to assess the effect macro- and micronutrients at various concentrations on cane yield and recovery of sugarcane variety Larkana-2001. The treatments included: Recommended dose of NPK fertilizers 225-112-168 ha^sup -1^ (control), NPK+Zn @ 5.0 kg ha^sup -1^, NPK+Zn @ 7.0 kg ha^sup -1^, NPK+B @ 1.5 kg ha^sup -1^, NPK+B @ 2.0 kg ha^sup -1^, NPK+Zn-B @ 5.0-1.5 kg ha^sup -1^, NPK+Zn-B @ 5.0-2.0 kg ha^sup -1^, NPK+Zn-B @ 7.0-1.5 kg ha^sup -1^ and NPK+Zn-B @ 7.0-2.0 kg ha^sup -1^. The experiment was conducted in a three replicated Randomized Complete Block Design. The crop receiving recommended dose of NPK + 7.0+2.0 kg ha^sup -1^ Zn-B produced 75.54 percent germination, 303.00 cm cane length, 3.33 cm cane girth, 6.33 tillers stool^sup -1^, 17.09 internodes cane^sup -1^, 16.24 kg weight of 10 canes, 101.06 [dagger] ha^sup -1^ cane yield and 11.05% sugar recovery. Sugarcane fertilized with NPK+Zn-B @ 7.0-1.5 kg ha^sup -1^ resulted in 75.09 percent germination, 302.00 cm cane length, 3.32 cm cane girth, 6.31 tillers stool^sup -1^, 17.04 internodes cane^sup -1^, 16.19 kg weight of 10 canes, 100.37 [dagger] ha^sup -1^ cane yield and 10.92% sugar recovery. The remaining treatments as well as control resulted relatively in lower values for all the cane yield and recovery contributing characters. Hence, it is concluded that Zn-B @ 7.0-1.5 kg ha^sup -1^ was an optimum level for achieving economically maximum cane yield (100.37 [dagger] ha^sup -1^) and recovery (10.92%); and the differences were non-significant (P>0.05) when boron application was increased to 2.0 kg ha^sup -1^ with same zinc level (7.0 kg ha^sup -1^) in addition to NPK fertilizers.