Zinc Nutrition in Banana (cv. Grand Naine) at Early Growth Stage

Aims: Banana is one of the most important and globally popular table purpose fruit. This plant requires good nutrition management with respect to macro and all micronutrients combining both the organic and inorganic sources. Out of different micronutrients, zinc plays a vital role in normal growth of banana plants starting from young stage. With the view, the present experiment was carried out to study the effect of zinc nutrition on early growth of banana plants (cv. Grand Naine).

Study Design: The experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with seven treatments and three replications.

Place and Duration of Study: Present study has been carried out at Horticultural Farm, Department of Horticulture and Postharvest Technology, Institute of Agricuture, Visva-Bharati, Sriniketan, West Bengal in the year 2022.

Methodology: In the present experiment, treatments comprised of different levels of zinc nutrition using zinc sulphate ZnSO4 (@ 0.25% and 0.5%) which were applied on different days (15, 30, and 45 DAP). The experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications and seven treatments (ZnSO4 @ 0.25% applied at 15 and 30 DAP, ZnSO4 @ 0.5% applied at 15 and 30 DAP, ZnSO4 @ 0.25% applied at 30 and 45 DAP, ZnSO4 @ 0.5% applied at 30 and 45 DAP, ZnSO4 @ 0.25% applied at 15 and 45 DAP, ZnSO4 @ 0.5% applied at 15 and 45 DAP and control or no zinc sulphate application). The neutralization of zinc sulphate solution was done by adding required amount of lime.

Results: It was observed that the foliar application of zinc significantly influenced plant growth. Foliar application of ZnSO4 @ 0.25% at 15 and 45 DAP recorded maximum in plant height (54.23 cm), pseudostem girth (26.82 mm), number of leaves (9.86), leaf length (36.73 cm), lamina length (29.85 cm), petiole length (5.18 cm) and leaf breadth (15.77). On the other hand, foliar application of ZnSO4 @ 0.5% at 15 and 30 DAP increased the root length (42.33 cm), shoot fresh weight (177.64 g), shoot dry weight (56.39 g), and fresh root weight (26.15 g) and dry root weight (2.85 g). The maximum number of roots (25.46) was recorded on the foliar application of ZnSO4 @ 0.5% applied at 30 and 45 DAP.

Conclusion: Application of zinc on banana plants shows better growth than the control and the application of ZnSO4 @ 0.5%applied at 15 and 30 DAP was observed with both moderate shoot and root growth.