Author(s): F. K. Bauri, A. De, D. K. Misra, B. Bandyopadhyay, S. Debnath, S. K. Sarkar and P. Avani

Abstract: An experiment was conducted with eight treatments to study the effect of micronutrient and growth regulators for yield and quality in banana cv. Martaman (Musa AAB, Silk) during 2011-2012. The treatments were, T1 – Borax (0.1%), T2- KH2PO4 (0.5%), T3 - KNO3 (0.5%), T4 - K2SO4 (0.5%), T5 - GA3 (30 ppm), T6 – 2,4-D (30 ppm), T7 – Dehanding and T8 – Control (water spray). Micronutrient and growth regulator have got significant influence over yield and fruit quality. Maximum increase in bunch weight (17.72kg), yield (44.30t/ha), number of hands (8.88), number of finger per bunch (133.66) and finger length (13.45cm) was recorded by KH2PO4 (0.5%) application. With regard to physicochemical characters of fingers, Borax (0.1%) showed maximum influence for total soluble solids (26.72 oBrix), total sugar (14.57 %) and sugar: acid ratio (45.53). The maximum vitamin C content (8.60 mg/100g pulp), shelf life (6.40 days) and benefit: cost (1.48) was recorded by the treatment of 2, 4-D (30 ppm).The same treatment was also found to be next most influencing treatment in increasing bunch weight, yield, hands number and finger length after KH2PO4 (0.5%) . It may be concluded that the application of 2,4-D @ 30 ppm was effective in modifying the finger characters thereby improving the yield, fruit quality and B: C ratio of banana cv. Martaman.....

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