Determination of optimum fertilizer and spacing requirement for sustaining higher growth and fibre yield of Indian ramie (Boehmeria nivea)

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during 1997-2000 on medium fertile, sandy-loam acidic soil of Ramie Re- search station, Sorbhog, Assam, to study the effect of fertilizer and spacing on growth and fibre yield of ramie [Boehmeria nivea (L.) Gaud.] cv. 'R 141 1'. Total 14 cuttings could be taken in the order of 2,5, 4 and 3 cuttings in the lst, 2nd, 3rd and 4th year respectively. The highest fibre yield of 164 to 650 kglhdcutting was recorded with 40:20:20 kg NPWhdcutting of whereas the lowest spacing, i.e. 20 cm x 40 cm resulted in the highest fibre yield1 cutting ranging between 172 and 654 kglhdcutting, may be due to accommodation of higher cane numbers per unit area. Interaction of fertilizer and spacing showed that 40:20:20 kglhalcutting of NPK along with 20 cm x 40 cm spacing resulted in the highest fibre yield per cutting (184-690 kglhdcutting) which was at par with fibre yield (179-687 kglhdcutting) obtained with 30:15:15 kglhdcutting of NPK with 20 cm x 40 cm spacing. Second year of the plantation provided the highest total fibre yield of 2,469 kglha with 40:20:20 kglha of NPK along with 20 cm x 40 cm spacing. Regarding the cutting-wise fibre yield, it was observed that 2 cutting (July) gave the highest fibre yield (597kglhdcutting) followed by 3rd, 1st and 4 cutting in descending order.