Agricultural and Biological Research

Effect of fertilizers, vermicompost and farmyard manure on growth of red dragon fruit (Hylocereus costaricensis (Web.) Britton and Rose)

Atul Kumar Rawat, Sutanu Maji*, Mayaram, Razauddin, Aditya Kumar Maurya and Ramesh Chand Meena

Dragon fruit is well responsive to nutrient management. Vermicompost and Farm Yard Manure are better responsible than use of single manure for influencing both quantitative as well as qualitative aspects of dragon fruit. But there is limited information available regarding its fertilizer management in dragon fruit, for which present investigation was planned to see the influence of integrated nutrient management on growth of dragon fruit plant at Lucknow subtropical condition. There were 10 treatments (T₀-Control, T₁-Recommended dose fertilizer (RDF), T₂-75% RDF+1 kg Vermicompost/pole, T₃-50% RDF+2 kg Vermicompost/pole, T₄-25% RDF+3 kg Vermicompost/pole, T₅-0% RDF+4 kg Vermicompost/pole, T₆- 75% RDF+4 kg FYM/pole,T₇-50% RDF+6 kg FYM/pole, T₈-25% RDF+8 kg FYM/pole, T₉-0% RDF+10 kg FYM/pole) laid out in RBD design with 3 replications. The recorded observations on vegetative growth parameters revealed that application of organic (vemicompost and farm yard manure) and inorganic fertilizer (RDF) in the form of 75% RDF+4 kg FYM showed maximum vegetative growth followed by significant improvement with application of 75% RDF+1 kg vermicompost.