Fruit yield improvement of deteriorated guava plants in salt affected soil

Soil Salinity is a common problem throughout the world. However, it is seriously affecting the economy of Pakistan by limiting crop productivity on a large area of 6.68 m ha. Various salt tolerant crop / plant varieties are grown in salt affected soil. Guava (Psidium Guajava L.) is a salt tolerant fruit plant and is one of the most popular fruits in Pakistan. Guava has attained commercial importance in tropics and sub-tropics because of its adaptability to varied soil and climatic conditions. Most of the plants grown in salt affected soils lose their bearing after some time. The present study was conducted to improve the fruit bearing of guava plants grown through modified rhizosphere technique. For this purpose five years old guava plants growing in saline sodic field [pHs, 8.8; ECe, 4.70 dS m-1; SAR, 32.30 (m mol L-1) and GR, 7.56 t ha-1] were selected. The treatments applied were: T1 = control; T2 =gypsum @ 100% GR; T3 = gypsum @ 100% GR + FYM @ 40 kg plant-1; T4 = gypsum @ 100% GR + FYM @ 40 kg + urea @ 1.0 kg plant-1; T5 = gypsum @ 100% GR + FYM @ 40 kg + urea @ 1.5 kg plant-1 and T6 = gypsum @ 100% GR + FYM @ 40 kg + urea @ 2.0 kg plant-1. All the gypsum, phosphorus, potash and half of the urea were applied in the month of February, and the remaining half of urea was applied in the month of August. Maximum fruit yield (28.13 kg plant-1) was obtained with the application of treatment T6 (gypsum @ 100% GR + FYM @ 40 kg + urea @ 2.0 kg plant-1) followed by the treatment T5 (gypsum 100% GR + FYM @ 40 kg + 1.5 kg urea plant-1) giving fruit yield of 22.35 kg plant-1 and least in control (4.29 kg plant-1).