Studies on the Performance of Nendran in the Terai Region

This study was carried out on Plantain cv. Nendran in order to investigate the effect of different rates of nitrogen and potassium fertilization on growth, yield and fruit quality. Availability of macronutrients were significantly affected by fertilizer application rates. The highest values of macronutrients availability were obtained under T9 (N250 P80 K400 gm. per plant). Leaf chemical analysis showed direct relationship between fertilization application rates and the leaf mineral content. Leaf N, P and K content were increased with nitrogen and potassium applied as compared with the control. It is clear that adding N and K fertilizer at higher dose resulted in greater bunch weight and number of fingers than the control. Fruit total soluble solids;, total sugars and TSS/acid ratio were significantly increased with increasing N and K application rates compared with the control. Generally, it could be concluded that the treatment of T9 (N250 P80 K400 gm. per plant) seems to be the promising treatment which produced the highest vegetative growth, yield and improved fruit quality under these experimental conditions due to improving nutritional status of studied soil.