Long-term response of dragon fruit (Hylocereus undatus) to transformed rooting zone of a shallow soil improving yield, storage quality and profitability in a drought prone semi-arid agro-ecosystem.

ABSTRACT: Agricultural crops especially fruit trees are constrained by edaphic stresses in shallow soils with low water retention and poor fertility. Therefore, interventions of shifting to trench planting for better root anchorage and replacing the filling soil were evaluated for 8 years in dragon fruit (Hylocereus undatus) cultivated in Deccan Plateau of peninsular India. When averaged for last 5-years, 44 % higher fruit yield (18.2 ± 1.0 Mg ha^-1) was harvested from trees planted in trenches filled with 1:1 mixture (T-mixed) of native soil (loamy sand with 26.7 % stones (>2mm), field capacity, FC 0.20 cm³ cm^-3; organic carbon, OC 0.17 %; Av-N 54.6 kg ha^-1) and a black soil (clay 54.4 %; FC 0.42 cm³ cm^-3; OC 0.70 %; Av-

SUBMITTER: Wakchaure GC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9694100 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature