Assessment of Foliar Application of Biostimulants and Silicon on Yield and Yield Attributing Characters of Mango (Mangifera indica l.) CV. Kesar

The present investigation was carried out at Fruit Research Station, Sakkarbaug, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh during 2020-21 and 2021-22. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with Factorial concept consisting two factors with three replications. The treatment comprised with biostimulants viz., without biostimulant, humic acid (1.5 %), panchagavya (3 %), seaweed extract (0.2 %), novel organic liquid fertilizer (2 %) and silicon i.e., without silicon, potassium silicate (0.2 %) and orthosilicic acid (0.2 %). The results of the study indicated that among the different biostimulants application of humic acid 1.5 % and among the different silicon application of potassium silicate 0.2 % was recorded with minimum number of nubbins per 100 fruits at pea (20.42 and 22.52) and marble stage (10.67 and 12.80) and maximum fruits retention at harvesting (2.03 and 1.85 %), number of fruits per tree (213.71 and 195.52), fruit yield (50.78 and 45.14 kg/tree), fruit length (10.60 and 10.39 cm), fruit breadth (6.67 and 6.55 cm), fruit weight (234.58 and 226.24 g), pulp weight (175.87 and 168.79 g) and pulp: stone ratio (5.16 and 5.07) during pooled analysis, respectively. In the present investigation some of the interaction effects were also found significant. The combined application of humic acid 1.5 % with potassium silicate 0.2 % recorded maximum number of fruits per tree (235.57), fruit yield (60.42 kg/tree), fruit length (11.06 cm), fruit breadth (96.86 cm), fruit weight (254.71 g) and pulp weight (192.61 g) during pooled analysis. It can be concluded that for improved yield and yield attributing characters with foliar application of humic acid 1.5 % along with potassium silicate 0.2 % at initiation of flowering, pea and marble stage.