Author(s): V. HNAMTE, R. CHATTERJEE, LUNGMUANA AND P. K. PATRA

Abstract: An experiment was carried out at Horticultural Research Station, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya during 2011-12 and 2012-13 to assess the interactive effect of two micronutrient-boron (B) and zinc (Zn) on growth, yield and quality of turmeric var. Suranjana. The micronutrients were sprayed once (90 DAS), twice (90 + 120 DAS) or thrice (90 + 120 + 150 DAS) to prepare an effective spray schedule for achieving higher production with better quality turmeric. Tallest plant (108.18 cm) and the highest number of tillers clump-1 (3.60) were observed in the treatment comprising combined application of B @ 0.2% and Zn @ 0.5% sprayed twice, while maximum number of leaves (17.88), highest girth of the plant (2.31 cm), leaf length (58.71 cm) and leaf width (16.02 cm) were recorded with combined application of B @ 0.2% and Zn @ 0.5% sprayed thrice. Combined application of B and Zn thrice, also proved to be most effective in achieving some important yield and quality attributing characters such as volume of rhizome per clump (448.42 ml), yield ha-1 (32.18 t), oleoresin content (12.94%), dry recovery (24.37%), curcumin content (5.21%) and enhancement in the antioxidant activity of phenolic extract (DPPH radical scavenging assay [IC50 value (μg ml-1)]).

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