Integrated nutrients management in Khadrawy date palm under hot arid region

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted to see the effect of organic (FYM) and inorganic (NPK) sources as well as foliar spray of micronutrients on fruit yield and quality of date palm fruits. Total eighteen treatments were taken, and allocated in randomized block design with three replications on uniform 35 years old date palm trees. The treatments were applied during last week of October in soil application, and foliar applications of micronutrients were applied twice in November and March. The results revealed that the combined application of T15 (100 kg FYM + 1.00 kg N + 0.500 kg P2O5 + 1.00 kg K2O + 1.00% FeSO4 + 0.50% ZnSO4) and T14 (100 kg FYM + 1.00 kg N + 0.50 kg P2O5 + 1.00 kg K2O + 0.50% FeSO4 + 0.25% ZnSO4) significantly improved the fruit yield, total soluble solids, total sugars, reducing sugars, ascorbic acid, N, P, K, Fe and Zn content in fruit, and reduced the acidity and tannin content with higher returns over rest of the treatments. Thus, this manure, fertilizers and micro-nutrients dose helped in sustainable optimum production of quality and nutritional fruits of date palm cv. Khadrawy in Bikaner conditions.