Efficacy of Foliar Application of Micronutrients on Bio-chemical Attributes of Guava (Psidium guajava L.) cv. Allahabad Safeda

Abstract

To assess the efficacy of foliar application of micronutrients, i.e. Zinc as a Zinc Sulphate, Copper as Copper Sulphate and Boron as Boric acid on biochemical attributes of guava (Psidium guajava L.) cv. Allahabad Safeda fruits during 2019-20, a field experiment was carried out at Horticultural Research Farm- II of the Department of Horticulture, School of Agricultural Science and Technology, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow, India on 12-year-old guava plants. The experiment was conducted in randomized block design (RBD) with three replications. Using a digital hand refractometer, biochemical parameters such as total soluble solids were estimated at room temperature. The ascorbic acid, total sugars, reducing sugars, and non-reducing sugars content in the fruit sample were analyzed, the gathered data were statistically analyzed in accordance with Gomez's (1984) methodology. The foliar application of zinc sulphate@ 0.4% showed better quality of fruits in terms of TSS (11.780 Brix), Acidity (0.4%), Total Sugars (6.34%), sugar acid ratio (15.91) while the application of Boric acid@ 0.4% resulted in maximum value of ascorbic acid (173.373mg/100g) pulp and pectin (1.650) respectively.