Fertigation through trickle and micro sprinkler on flowering characters in cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.)

An experiment was conducted during 2010 and 2011 to investigate the impact of fertigation on flowering characters of cocoa at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, India. The study was laid out in randomized block design with thirteen treatment combinations replicated thrice. The study shown that, fertigation with 125% recommended fertilizer dose as water soluble fertilizer through fertigation by micro sprinkler irrigation (T10) recorded the highest number of flower cushions per tree per season (377.6) as against 16.60% increase over the control (314.9) at 0.05% significance. The same treatment (T10) recorded the best in terms of other flowering characters viz., area of pollen grain (504.1 μm 2 ), equivalent diameter of the pollen grain (27.4 microns), radius of the pollen grain (13.3 microns), pollen output (34.9), pollen viability (89.2%), pollen germination (88.1%) as against 38.39, 23.72, 24.06, 28.65, 17.38 and 36.55% increase over the control (T1) respectively. Fertigation with 125% recommended fertilizer dose as water soluble fertilizer through fertigation by micro sprinkler irrigation recorded the maximum flowering characters.