Effects of Organic-based Fortified Foliar Fertilizer on the Growth and Yield of ‘Lakatan’ Banana (Musa acuminata)

Abstract

To determine the effect of Organic-based Fortified Foliar Fertilizer (OFF) on the growth and yield of ‘Lakatan’ banana, this study was conducted at the University of Southeastern Philippines, Tagum – Mabini Campus, Mabini Unit, Mampising, Mabini, Compostela Valley Province, from December 2015 to March 2016.          The experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with six treatments replicated three times. The treatments were: T1- control; T2- Recommended Rate of NPK fertilizer/ha; T3 - ½ RR of NPK/ha; T4 –Organic-based Fortified Foliar fertilizer (OFF) at 100 ml/16 liters of water; T5 - ½ RR of NPK + OFF; and T6 - RR of NPK + OFF. Results showed that no significant effects were observed in terms of the plant height at 15, 30, 45 days after application (DAA), pseudostem girth at 15, 30, 45 DAA, and number of hands per bunch. However, significant differences were obtained in the number of leaves, number of fingers per bunch, fruit weight (kg) and yield (tons/ha) of ‘Lakatan’ banana. The highest number of leaves were obtained in T6 – RR of NPK fertilizer/ha + OFF which is comparable to T5 – ½ RR of NPK fertilizer/ha + OFF. T6 – RR of NPK+ OFF also had the highest number of fingers per hand than the rest of the treatments as much as 21% higher than the control. The fruit weight of T6 – RR of NPK+ OFF has 61% higher than untreated and the yield of 37 tons/ha is higher than the national average yield of 9.4 tons/ha in ‘Lakatan’ banana.