Vol. 7(4), pp. 94-98, April, 2015
DOI: 10.5897/JHF2014.0384
Article Number: 07C4D5851569
ISSN 2006-9782 Journal of Horticulture and Forestry
Copyright ©2015
Author(s) retain the copyright of this article
http://www.academicjournals.org/JHF

Full Length Research Paper

Effects of organic and chemical fertilizers on yield and

total soluble solids (TSS) in
Banana Cavendish group (AAA)
Intisar Bakheit1* and Elsadig H. Elsadig2
1
University of Dongola, Sudan.
2
Sudan University of Science and Technology, Sudan.
Received 17 December, 2014; Accepted 11 March, 2015

Banana fruit production in the Sudan covers a wide spectrum of activities ranging from local utilization
of fruit with self-sufficiency through small farming for local market to large plantation for export. It is
one of the most important fruits of Sudan. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted at two locations
during 2009\2010 and 2010\2011 in split-split plot layout with four replications. The main plots were the
two varieties of Cavendish Dwarf and Grand Nain (AAA) and the sub-plots are the fertilizer treatments
arranged randomly. The treatments consisted of urea (400 g/mat/yearr), NPK (200 g/mat/year) and in
combination with organic fertilizers ,compost 10 kg/plant/year, manure 5 kg/plant/year). The results
indicated that there were significant effects (p≤0.05) in fruit parameters (weight of bunch, hand, fingers
and number of hands\bunch and fingers\bunch). The fertilizer treatment urea (400 g\mat\year), and urea
plus organic manure in the two seasons were highly significant different. The results showed that there
were highly significant increase in growth resulted from all fertilizer treatments and reflected in earlier
shooting, 198 days in the main crop, 142 days in the first ratoon, and shorter time to flowering and
harvest, 35 days in the main crop and 32 days in the first ratoon crop in Dwarf Cavendish compared to
Grand Nain cultivars in the two seasons.

Key words: Banana, varieties, fertilizers.

INTRODUCTION

Banana is one of the oldest tropical fruits cultivated by Elbashir and Imam, 2010). The experiment was done
man from pre-historic times (INRI, 2001). Banana (Musa with two cultivars of Cavendish group, dwarf and giant
spp) member of the Musaceae family is one of the most Cavendish. Dwarf is the smallest or short and better
important tropical fruit crops in the world and is a major adapted to a cool climate than any other cultivar. “Giant
tropical food crop with annual world production of around Cavendish” compared to dwarf is slightly taller and its
88 million tons (Sharrock et al.,, 2001). Dwarf Cavendish French name is “Grand Nain”, Samson (1980). 'Grand
is the predominant cultivar grown in Sudan especially in Nain is an outstanding banana variety growing from 180
the Blue Nile and Kassala States (Elhassan et al., 2006; to 240 cm (6 to 8 feet) tall and with solid green color. It is

*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected].

Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
License 4.0 International License
 Bakheit and Elsadig 95

very attractive as landscaping potential. The 'Grand Nain The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of
cultivar produces very large heads of delicious fruits. organic manure and chemical fertilizers on growth
Bunches may weigh up to 60 kg (150 Lbs.). This is a and yield of two banana cultivars namely Dwarf
commercial variety that you may buy in the grocery store. Cavendish and Grand Nain, and to determine the dose of
The word ‘‘banana” is a general term embracing a fertilizers which influence the yield and fruit characte-
number of species or hybrids in the genus Musa of the ristics, like total bunch weight ,middle hand weight and
family Musaceae. Most edible banana fruits are seedless. number of fingers per middle-hand.
It belongs to the Species (Musa acuminate). Banana can
be divided into two main groups, one is the dessert
bananas which constitute 43% of world production MATERIALS AND METHODS
(Jones, 2000), the fruits of this group are chiefly eaten
The present study was carried out in Alliab area in the River Nile
raw when ripe as a dessert fruit, and the other group is State in Sudan, during the period from June to September
the wild one filled with a great number of very hard seeds (2009\2010 and 2010/2011). The climate of the area is desert, hot
with thickness of 3 to 5 mm. Banana fruit production in summer, warm winter and with summer rain (Van der Kevie, 1976).
the Sudan covers a wide spectrum of activities ranging The soil samples were analyzed for physical and chemical
from local utilization of fruit, through small farming for characters according to the standard procedure (Table 1). The
local market, to large plantation for export. The organic design was split plot design. The experiment was carried out as
split-split plot based on randomized complete block design (RCBD)
manure which was made from compost provides the with four replications and 18 treatments; the main plots are the two
nutrients necessary for the crop as nitrogen, phosphorus, varieties of Dwarf Cavendish (AAA) and Grand Nain (AAA) and the
potassium etc., and improves the chemical and physical sub- plots are the fertilizer treatments arranged randomly. Planting
characteristics of the soil. The soil fertility increases and it materials are suckers of the banana cultivars, Dwarf Cavendish and
becomes soft and porous. Thus humidity is also Grand Nain, four months old, sword type. The suckers were
maintained. obtained from a plantation in Shendi locality. The experiment in sub
plots consisted of, urea 400 g/mat/year, NPK (18:18:18) : 18
In the Sudan commercial banana production is for local g/mat/year, and the organic fertilizers, compost 10 kg/plant and
market. The cultivation is concentrated to the alluvial manure 5 g/mat/year). The bunches were weighed using spring
Delta of Gash River in Kassala State. In Kassala State balance. To determinate the weight of fingers, the weight of all
there was a reduction in acreage. This reduction was hands in a bunch was divided by the total number of fingers in that
mainly attributed to scarcity of irrigation water and to poor bunch.
husbandry practices (ACCORD, 2010). There are many
problems that hinder the production of banana such as
nematode infestation, scarcity of suckers and the depen- RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
dence on one variety, in addition to the lack of knowledge
about the cultural practices, and absence of detailed Generally the results in the two seasons indicated that
agricultural operations, such as fertilization planting there were significant differences (p≤0.05) in weight of
methods, variety, spacing, and pruning, ripening and bunch, number of hands/bunch, number of fingers/
marketing programs of the future. Therefore, to stimulate bunch, and weight of hands/bunch and earlier times to
banana crop production and make it commercially fea- flowering and to harvesting in all fertilizers treatments, es-
sible, considerable research should be geared towards pecially the treatments manure (M), Compost + Urea
investigating ,recognizing and solving the problems (C+U) and Urea (U) as compared to the control (Table 2).
facing banana industry in the country. Fertilization is an In addition to that, the cultivar Grand Nain was more res-
important and limiting factor for growth and productivity of ponsive than Dwarf Cavendish in all parameters (Figure
banana. The plants remove large amounts of nutrients 1); this result indicates that cultivars respond differently to
from the soil as it is well known that banana needs large fertilizer treatments and this is may be due to the genetic
amounts of fertilizers especially nitrogen. Therefore the differences between the two cultivars. These findings are
major problems facing banana growers are the high costs in agreement with that of Gangwar and Niranjan (1990)
of manufactured fertilizers needed for banana production who studied the effect of inorganic fertilizers and FYM on
(El Moniem et al., 2008; ACCORD, 2010). Besides, these the rain-fed fodder sorghum. They found that addition of
chemical fertilizers are considered as air, soil and water FYM+50% recommended doses of inorganic fertilizer
polluting agents during their production and utilization. resulted in significantly higher plant height, dry weight,
Consequently, it has drawn the attention of researchers and fresh weight and increased the uptake of N, P and K
and banana growers to use the organic fertilizers, which compared with the control. This is also in agreement with
are safe for human, animal and environment, as a partial Singh and Suryanaryana (1999) and Manica et al. (1978)
substitute for mineral source. Thus, it is preferred to use who recorded the highest bunch weight and fruit yield by
these natural fertilizers to avoid pollution and to reduce 200 g N. Dawoud et al. (1991) studied the response of
the costs of chemical fertilizers. In the experiments two dwarf Cavendish banana to nitrogen fertilization on heavy
types of fertilizers were used, organic manure (cow and clay soils. The heavy clay soils of Sudan are low in N and
chicken) and chemical fertilizer (Urea+ NPK) and the organic matter. The effect of N (0-276 g/mat/year on the
combinations of the two fertilizers. growth and yield of bananas Cv. Dwarf Cavendish (plant
96 J. Hortic. For.

v1 v2

10
9
8
7
Bunch weight/kg

6
5
4
3
2
1
0
0 C C+NPK C+U M M+NPK M+U NPK U
Treatments

Figure 1. Bunch weight, kg/ha for Dwarf Cavendish plant crop.

v 1= Dwarf Cvedish; v 2= Grand Nain. C= Compost, M= Manure, NPK= Inorganic fertilizer.

Table 1. Soil physical characteristics at the experiment site in Alliab area.

Type of soil Sand Clay Silt

Percentage (%) 45 53 2

Table 2. Effect of fertilizers (organic and commercial) treatments on yield components of Dwarf
Cavendish plant crop, season (2009/2010-2010/2011).

Weight of Weight of hand/ Number of Number of

Treatment
bunch/kg bunch/ kg hand/bunch/cm fingers/bunch
U 16.23a 2.5ab 6.3ab 10.7abc
NPK 14.0bc 2.7ab 5.1bc 9.4bc
M 15.3ab 2.5ab 6.0abc 11.7a
C 14.9ab 2.4ab 6.1ab 10.4abc
a
M+U 16.9 4.8a 7.1a 10.9ab
ab
M+NPK 15.6 5.2a 5.8abc 10.0abc
C+U 15.5ab 4.6a 6.4ab 11.4ab
C+NPK 15.5ab 3.7ab 6.1ab 10.3abc
C0 10.8c 1.9c 4.6c 8.62c
LSD 1842 1.79 1.3 1.87
SE+ 594.9 0.58 0.448 0.655
CV% 34.5 43.6 21.6 17.5
*The same letter(s) were not significantly different according to Duncan’s Multiple at Range test 5% level.M
(manure), U (urea), and C (compost), NPK (inorganic fertilizer).
 Bakheit and Elsadig 97

Table 3. Effect of fertilizers (organic and N application) treatments on yield components of Grand Nain plant crop
seasons 2009/2010-2010/2011).

Weight of Weight of Number of Number of

Treatment
bunch/kg hand/bunch/kg hand/bunch/cm fingers/bunch
Urea 17.8a 2.8a 8.4b 12.9ab
NPK 16.9a 2.7a 7.3bc 11.0ab
Manure 16.4a 2.7a 7.8bc 11.1ab
Compost 16.2a 2.6a 8.0b 12.6ab
M+U 18.4a 2.7a 9.1a 12.6ab
M + NPK 16.1a 2.8a 7.6bc 11.0ab
C+U 17.2a 2.8a 8.0bc 13.3a
a
C + NPK 17.7 2.7a 7.8bc 11..6ab
b
Control 12 1.7b 6.5c 10.1b
LSD 3.07 1.88 1. 48 2.0
SE+ 1.08 0.66 0.52 0.70
CV% 43.83 29.89 18.47 16.89
*The same letter(s) were not significantly different according to Duncan’s Multiple at Range test 5% level Key: M
(manure), U (urea), and C (compost), NPK (inorganic fertilizer).

Table 4. Effect of fertilizers on TSS in different fruit stages (Green

and Ripe) of Dwarf Cavendish.

Treatment Green mature Ripe fruit

Urea 6.2bc 17.5ab
NPK 6.4bc 14.9b
Manure 6.8b 17.8ab
Compost 6.5bc 15.9ab
M+U 8.2ab 17.5ab
M + NPK 9.3a 20.3a
bc
C+U 6.7 15.3b
C + NPK 4.5c 14.7b
LSD 1.9 4.3
SE+ 0.805 1.593
CV% 28.8 26.1
*The same letter(s) were not significantly different according to
Duncan’s Multiple at Range test 5% level.

crop and first ratoon) was investigated over 6 years in Dwarf Cavendish compared to Grand Nain clones in
(1988-1994), and the results indicated that the application the two seasons, the time to harvest was 198 days in
of 138 g N\mat was the best rate for growth and yield. dwarf and 142 days in Grand Nain. Robinson (1995)
Bulter (1960) reported that substantial increase in mean stated that the duration from flowering to harvesting of
weight of bunch and total production per hectare were Cavendish subgroup range between 110 and 240 days in
mainly obtained by application of nitrogen-containing subtropical areas. Also the data depicted in Table 2,
compounds especially when those applied in small compost and manure plus urea, and urea alone, resulted
quantities. Fruit green life is a very important parameter in earlier shooting and less time from shooting to
in the banana industry. Hence, fruit green life and TSS harvesting. This result is in agreement with Arunachalam
content are used as criteria for screening and selection of et al. (1976) who reported that excessive nitrogen levels
promising banana clones for commercial production increased the length of maturation period while adequate
(Dadzie and Orchard, 1997). Application of fertilizers nitrogen levels caused earlier inflorescence and
combinations influenced the reproductive characteristics shortened the time from planting to shooting by 16 days
of Grand Nain. The results as indicated in Tables 2 and 3 and decreased maturation period by 14 days and thus
showed that there were highly significant increase in the whole cycle by one month.
growth resulted from all fertilizer treatments reflected in The results presented in Table 4 showed that total soluble
earlier shooting and shorter time to flowering and harvest solids (TSS) in green mature fruit were significantly higher
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Conflict of Interest

The authors have not declared any conflict of interest.

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