Assessment of Method and Application Schedule of Fertilizer N and K on Growth and Productivity of Summer Planted Sugarcane Crop (Saccharum officinarum L.) under Wide Spacing

Present investigation was carried out at Regional Research Station, Uchani (Karnal) of CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India during 2020-21 to assess the effect of method and schedule of fertilizer application on growth, yield attributes and cane yield of summer planted sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) crop under wide spacing (120 cm). The experiment was arranged in split plot design with two methods of fertilizer application (B1-broadcasting and B2- band placement) as main plot treatments and four sub plot treatments which include application of recommended dose of N and K fertilizer (RDF) in different number of splits at different no. of days after planting (DAP) i.e. T1 (five splits), T2 (six splits), T3 (seven splits) and T4 (three splits). Results concluded that majority of growth parameters, yield attributes and cane yield were significantly affected by both main and sub plot treatments at different stages of crop growth period. Treatment B2 registered significantly higher tiller population (110.59 and102.68 000 ha-1 at 60 and 120 DAP respectively), plant height (91.16, 141.18, 400.12 and 412.13 cm at 60, 120, 180 and 240 DAP respectively), no. of millable canes (NMC) (100.79 and 96.58 000 ha-1 in mid-September and at harvesting respectively) cane length (234.64 cm at harvesting) and cane yield (93.16 t ha-1)compared to B1. Among sub plot treatments, T1 outperformed all the other treatments in terms of growth, yield attributes and cane yield. Treatment T1 registered maximum plant height (150.43, 411.0 and 427.45 cm at 120, 180 and 240 DAP respectively), tiller population (104.72 000 ha-1 at 120 DAP), NMC (102.06 and 95.20 000 ha-1 in mid-September and at harvesting respectively) and cane yield (94.83 t ha-1). Germination percentage, cane girth, no. of internodes per cane and length of internodes was not significantly affected either by main or sub plot treatments.