Impact of integrated nutrient management on growth and fruit physical attributes in Cape gooseberry, Physalis peruviana

Abstract

Cape gooseberry (Physalis peruviana L.) commonly known as Rasbhari is an important minor tropical Solanaceae fruit crop of India. An experiment was conducted at Horticulture Research Farm, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow during winter season 2016-2017, to study the impact of integrated nutrient management on growth and physical attributes of fruits in Cape gooseberry. The experiment comprised six treatments T1 (control)), T2 ((NPK 100 % RDF), T3 (FYM 100%) T4 (vermicompost 100%), T5 (50% NPK + 50% FYM) and T6 (50% NPK + 50% vermicompost) and was laid out in randomized block design with three replications. The observation revealed that the application of 50% vermincompost+50% NPK (T6) was better for improvement of plant height (34.55 cm), stem diameter (8.4 cm), number of leaves per plant (49.5), number of branches per plant (13.5), leaf length (8.7 cm) and leaf width (6.5 cm) along with the fruit physical attributes i.e. fruit weight with husk (7.0 g), fruit weight without husk (6.7 g), fruit size (3.2 cm equatorial diameter), fruit size (3.1 cm polar diameter), fruit volume (6.9 ml) and fruit specific gravity (1.2) which were found to be increased with the treatment.