Comparative Performance of Planting Materials and Standardization of Nutrient Requirement for High Yield, Quality and Early Spike Development in Tuberose (Agave amica Medik.) cv. Arka Prajwal

The study was carried out at Vegetable Research Station, TNAU, Palur, Tamil Nadu during 2021to2022. The experiment was laid out in Factorial Randomized Block Design (FRBD) with eight treatments and three replications. Planting materials used for the study were bulbs and bulblets. The eight nutrient combinations were tried with foliar application of micronutrient like zinc sulphate (0.2%), Ferrous sulphate (0.5%), Copper sulphate (0.4%) and Boric acid (0.2%) on 30, 60 and 90 DAP, individually and in combination with 25 t ha-1 FYM and recommended dose of fertilizer (200:200:200 kg ha-1 NPK). The control was maintained with RDF. Various biometric observations on growth and flowering attributes of tuberose were observed for all the treatments at different stages. The result of the present investigation revealed that among the interaction effects,B1N8[RDF + ALL 19 (NPK) + GA3@ 200 ppm (2 spray at 30 days intervals) + ZnSO4 (0.2%) + FeSO4 (0.5%) + H3BO3 (0.2 %) + CuSO4 (0.4 %)] recorded the highest plant height (95.12 cm), leaf length (51.85 cm), leaf width (2.4 cm), number of leaves per plants (42.67), rachis length (34.87cm), number of floret/spikes (46.66), flower duration (18.12 days), floret length (6.92 cm) and floret diameter (4.39cm) followed by the treatment B2N8 which recorded the highest height (90.44 cm), leaf length (48.48 cm), leaf width (2.2 cm), number of leaves per plants (39.78), rachis length (30.42 cm), number of floret/spikes (44.95), flower duration (19.93days), floret length (6.45cm) and floret diameter (4.21cm). From the interaction effect, the treatment combinationB2N1 [control (RDF) 200:200:200 NPK] recorded the lowest plant height (72.36 cm), leaf length (42.81 cm), leaf width (1.12 cm) and number of leaves per plants (43.00), rachis length (25.11cm), number of floret/spikes (37.00), flower duration (15.23days), floret length (5.04 cm) and floret diameter (3.02 cm).