Using the organic and bio-fertilizers as a partial substitute for mineral-N in Williams banana orchards

Abstract EN

This study was carried out during two consecutive seasons of 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 on the third and fourth ration of Williams banana plants.

The plants are grown in a private Orchard located at Kom Ombo city, Aswan Governorate, Egypt.

The compost as an organic fertilizer, enriched with EM or bio-mex was used as a partial replacement for the mineral-N fertilizer.

The experiment was set up as a complete randomized block design.

The results revealed that using the recommended dose of nitrogen (RDN) via 25% as a mineral source and 25 to 50% as an organic one enriched with 50 or 25% of EM or bio-mex significantly enhanced the length and circumference of pseudostem, leaf area and total leaf area/plant as well as percentage of N, P and K of leaves compared to use the RDN only as a mineral N fertilizer.

Also, the N fertilization with a combination of mineral and organic N sources with a bio-fertilizer significantly increased the bunch weight and hand weight consequently increased the yield/plant, as well as improved the fruit quality compared to use the RDN only as a mineral source.

The promotion on such growth and fruiting traits was associated with increasing percentage of bio-form from 25 to 50%.

The organic fertilizer enriched with bio-mex significantly stimulated these traits more than its use with EM.

It is evident that such N fertilization program is very important for the banana fruit production.

It improve the nutrient status, yield and fruit quality of banana plants.

In addition, it minimizes the production costs and environmental pollution which could be occurred with using chemical fertilizers.