Bananas are heavy feeders of nutrients and thus need balanced nutrition for optimum growth and fruit production and in turn obtain potential yields. Any deviation in the supply of nutrients at this crucial stage affects the bunch size and quality. During fruit development, soil application of nutrient uninhibited flow of nutrients to the developing bunch influence the poor filling, development and quality of fingers. Soil characters may cause considerable loss to the soil applied nutrients leading to insufficient supply of nutrient after shooting to meet the nutrient demand of developing bunch. Hence, bunch feeding of nutrients provides a considerable scope not only for the effective utilization of nutrients as source to a sink but also to safeguard the economy of the farmer by improving the uniformity in bunch shape, yield and quality. A field experiment was conducted to study the effect of denavelling and bunch feeding of nutrients on the bunch cum finger parameters of banana cv. Champa (AAB) at AICRP on fruits, Horticulture Research Station, Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) Bhubaneswar during the year 2019. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design (RBD) with 3 replications and 9 treatments including untreated check. The results revealed that the bunch feeding of nutrient along with cowdung slurry significantly influenced the bunch character, yield and post-harvest quality. The treatment T5 (denavelling + bunch feeding with cow dung slurry and K2SO4 @15 g/plant) significantly increased yield and yield attributing characters viz., bunch length (63.66cm), bunch girth (86.78cm), hand weight (1.61kg), bunch weight (13.36kg), yield (32.74 t/ha) and finger parameters viz., finger weight (86.28g), finger length (15.32cm), finger girth (14.77cm), pulp to peel ratio (4.86) and rind thickness (3.45mm) which was closely followed by T4 (denavelling + bunch feeding with cow dung slurry and K2SO4 @ 7.5g/plant) for all the above mentioned characters. The post-harvest parameters such as TSS (22.570B), Total sugar (20.23%) and shelf life (16.91 days) were found maximum in T5 followed by T4 the above treatment. Thus, the study clearly indicates that denavelling combined with nutrient support in the form of bunch feeding i.e., T5: denavelling + bunch feeding with cow dung slurry and K2SO4 @15 g/plant) is a beneficial operation to boost the yield of Champa banana which is widely cultivated in Odisha.

Denavelling, bunch feeding, Champa Banana

Denavelling along with bunch feeding through cow dung slurry was found effective increasing in bunch parameters, finger parameter, fruit quality and shelf-life in banana cv. Champa. The results clearly indicated that supplementing sulphate of potash application through bunch feeding along with cow dung slurry increased bunch parameters such as bunch length (63.66cm), bunch girth (86.78cm), bunch weight (13.36kg), hand weight (1.61kg), yield (32.74 t/ha) and finger parameter viz., finger weight (86.28g), finger girth (14.77cm), finger length (15.32cm), pulp to peel ratio (4.86) rind thickness (3.45mm). The postharvest parameters such as TSS (22.57°B), total sugar (20.23%) significantly and responded positively to nutrient supplements after denavelling. Hence, the present investigation shows the banana bunch weight can be enhanced by the direct feeding of nutrients to the bunch.

Shefalika Nayak, Sunil Samal, Subash Ch. Swain and Saudamini Swain (2022). Impact of Denavelling and Bunch Feeding on Yield, Yield Attributing Characters and Shelf-life in Banana cv. Champa. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 14(4a): 755-760.