Vol. 7, Issue 1 (2019)
Soil moisture, growth, yield, and quality of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) influenced by in situ soil moisture conservation techniques
Author(s): Prativa Sahu
Abstract: An experiment on soil working techniques like CBOC (crescent bund with open catchment pits), mulching and pre-harvest spray of forchlorfenuron and boron was carried out on seven-year-old plants of pomegranate cultivar Kandhari trained as four stems grown under rainfed conditions of Himachal Pradesh. Experimental plants were subjected to 11 treatments, viz., mulching, CBOC, CPPU (forchlorfenuron) at 5 or 10 ppm, H3BO3 at 0.2 or 0.4%, mulching + CPPU at 5 ppm or H3BO3 at 0.2%, CBOC + CPPU at 5 ppm or H3BO3 at 0.2% and control. These treatments were applied in mid-March (soil working techniques) and mid-May (forchlorfenuron and boron). Between the two applied soil working techniques, crescent bund with open catchments pits conserved higher soil moisture content at all the observation dates than mulching. Growth parameters like plant height, plant spread, trunk girth and annual shoot growth were observed significantly higher under the treatment CBOC + H 3BO3 at 0.2% due to higher moisture availability. However, leaf area and leaf chlorophyll content were recorded significantly higher under the treatment CBOC + CPPU at 5 ppm. Physiological characteristics such as photosynthetic rate and transpiration rate were higher in the plant under crescent bund with open catchment pits. The extent of fruit cracking was reduced to the lowest level (2.8%) from 11.67% in control and highest fruit yield (26.8Kg/plant) was recorded when the plants were given foliar application of CPPU at 5 ppm under CBOC. The maximum fruit length (86.2 cm) and fruit breadth (88.3 cm), fruit weight (419.74 g), aril weight (279.21 g), aril percentage (66.52), juice content (67.93 ml/100 g), ascorbic acid content (16.84 mg/100g) were obtained with the treatment of CPPU at 5ppm +CBOC. The lowest titratable acidity (0.49%), highest TSS (15.210 B) and TSS/acid ratio (31.07) was recorded in fruits from plants under the treatment of H3BO3 at 0.2% with mulching. Total sugar, reducing sugar were recorded highest under the treatment H3BO3 at 0.2% + CBOC and lowest in control. These results suggest that, soil working technique- crescent bund with open catchment pit can be employed to conserve higher soil moisture in rainfed conditions for improving growth and production of pomegranate.
Fig. 1: Fruit cracking in mature fruits
Fig. 2: Fruit cracking in younger fruits
Pages: 155-160 | 687 Views 124 Downloads
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How to cite this article:
Prativa Sahu. Soil moisture, growth, yield, and quality of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) influenced by in situ soil moisture conservation techniques. Int J Chem Stud 2019;7(1):155-160.
