Abstract

In India, banana is the important and highly remunerative fruit crop grown in tropical and subtropical region. It represents the second most important fruit crop after mango in India. Banana is grown throughout Asian countries but it is commercially cultivated on a large scale in the Indo-china region. A field experiment was carried out in the College Orchard, College of Agriculture, Punjab Agricultural University, during 2009. The objective of the study was to determine the proper rate of N and P fertilizers that would maximize the potential yield of commercially-grown banana Grand naine. Different levels of chemical fertilizers were applied, viz., N (150, 200, 250 and 300 g/tree), P (60 and 90 g/tree) in addition to non-fertilized control (no N and P applied) treatment. The results indicated that vegetative growth parameters (that is, pseudostem height, pseudostem girth, number of leaves, leaf area index) of fertilized plants neither were significantly different nor produced better vegetative growth when compared to non-fertilized control plants. The fertilizer treatment T5 consisting of N (200 g N in 5 split doses and 60 g P₂O₅) numerically influenced the yield and fruit characteristics like bunch weight, number of hands per bunch, hand weight and number of fingers per hand of ‘Grand naine’ banana as compared to other treatments. Hence, this fertilizer dose of N and P was recommended for cultivation of ‘Grand naine’ banana in northern region (Punjab) of India.

Key words: Fruit yield, bunch weight, banana, nitrogen and phosphorus.