Vol. 6, Issue 4 (2018)
Scheduling and standardization of fertigation techniques to improve the yield and quality of Lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. capitata)
Author(s): P Irene Vethamoni and Prashanth B Shivalkar
Abstract: Lettuce, Lactuca sativa L. belongs to the family Compositae and it is a hardy annual. It is used for salad purpose and called as king of salad vegetables. Due to the dynamics of quite uncommon development, short cultivation cycle with shallow root system and the need of transplant for establishment, nutrient application in lettuce requires great caution.As the crop is highly sensitive in terms of nutrient specifications and owing to its short life cycle there is a need to schedule and standardize an efficient nutrient application method like fertigation. Hence field experiments were conducted using lettuce hybrid ‘Raider’ (Seminis Seeds Pvt Ltd.) during November 2015 - January 2016 and March – May 2016 at Wood House Farm, Horticultural Research Station, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Ootacamund, India. The soil of the experimental site was clayey loam in texture, with electrical conductivity of 0.55 dsm-1 and 4.5 pH. The recommended dose of fertilizers (100:60: 60 kg NPK ha-1) were scheduled based on the uptake pattern of lettuce and given at seedling stage, rosette stage and maturity stage in the ratio of 10:20:60. In control treatment, full dose of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium were applied through straight fertilizers as soil application. In fertigation treatments, 75 percent recommended dose of phosphorus was given through soil application with straight fertilizers as basal dose and remaining 25 percent was applied as water soluble fertilizers through drip fertigation. The fertigation was given at five day intervals using water soluble fertilizers. The study revealed that fertigation with water soluble fertilizers at 100% RDF recorded the highest head weight (562.59 g), head diameter (14.01 cm) and yield (27.83 t/ha). Fertigation with water soluble fertilizers was found to improve the quality characters such as ascorbic acid content, nitrate content, calcium content, total carotenoid content, and total antioxidant content of lettuce head and physiological loss in weight of head was low in fertigation treatments compared to the soil application of straight fertilizers.
Pages: 599-602 | 553 Views 85 Downloads
download (6339KB)
How to cite this article:
P Irene Vethamoni, Prashanth B Shivalkar. Scheduling and standardization of fertigation techniques to improve the yield and quality of Lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. capitata). Int J Chem Stud 2018;6(4):599-602.
