FERTILIZER MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES IN SPRING PLANTED SUGARCANE (Saccharum officinarum L.)

Abstract

Sugarcane is a tropical plant (Humbert, 1968) and requires warm cum humid climate for its good growth. However, it is being grown over the sub tropics land surface of earth between latitude 30o N and 35o S (Nazir, 1994). Pakistan lies in sub tropics with semi arid climatic conditions where sugarcane is grown on an area of 1.241 million hectares with a total annual stripped cane production of 63.92 million tonnes giving an average stripped cane yield of 51.51 t ha-1 (Govt. of Pakistan, 2008). Two field experiments were conducted for two consecutive years during 2006 and 2007 at Farm area, Sugarcane Research Institute, Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, Faisalabad, Pakistan, to explore the production potential of spring planted sugarcane at higher levels of N and K, evaluate fertilizer application timing and to improve the nutrient (N & K) use efficiency. The experiments were laid out according to Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) having three replications with a net plot size of 6 m x 8 m. Results revealed significant effect of dose and time of nitrogen application on all agronomic and physiological traits except germination, number of shoots, number of internodes, NAR, HI and all quality parameters which were statistically non significant. The maximum stripped cane yield (108 & 101 t ha1) and sugar yield (12.8 & 12.1 t ha1) were recorded at T7 (126kg N ha-1 at sowing + 126 kg N ha-1 at 90 DAS) during 2006 and 2007, respectively. K2O level and time of its application has significant effect on all agronomic, physiological and quality parameters except germination, number of shoots, plant height, number of internodes, NAR, HI, fiber %, cane juice % and weight of bagasse % during both the years. The maximum stripped cane yield (116 & 107 t ha-1) was recorded at T7 (84 kg K2O ha-1 at sowing + 84 kg K2O ha-1 at 90 DAS) during 2006 and 2007, respectively. Sugar yield (14.7 t ha-1) was maximum at T7 (84 kg K2O ha-1 at sowing + 84 kg K2O ha-1 at 90 DAS) in 2006, while it was highest (14.1 t ha-1) in T10 (112 kg K2O ha-1 at sowing + 112 kg K2O ha-1 at 90 DAS) during 2007.