Investigation Of Nutrient Management Technology And Its Application In Drip Irrigated Banana Plantation

To solve the common problems of water and fertilizer management in banana plantation under fertigation condition in Guangxi province, the field studies were carried out in banana plantations in Guangxi Jinsui Agricultural Group. A "Science and Technology Backyard" in Jinsui Group was established. Focusing on the key issues of water and fertilizer management in banana farm.(1) The present study quantified the input and fate of main nutrients in the banana plantations under drip irrigation and established of a banana-based nutrient management technology system under fertigation conditions. This technology played an important role in the banana production.(2) Compared to the first generation banana, our results indicated that biomass of the second and third generation banana was substantially increased based on the fixed-point observation of growth and major nutrients accumulation of different banana generations. Along with the banana generations, the nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium accumulations in banana plants showed the same trend as biomass accumulation. The biomass and nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium accumulations of the first generation bananas were 20.3 t ha-1,336.1 kg ha-1,38.0 kg ha-1,1033.4 kg ha-1, 78.1 kg ha-1 and 31.1 kg ha-1, respectively. The biomass, nitrogen, phosphorus potassium, calcium, magnesium accumulation of the perennial bananas were 1.78,1.31,1.34,1.69,1.35 and 1.81 time higher than that of the first generation bananas.(3) The banana plantation soil showed serious acidification problem. The pH values of more than 77.8% reclamation soil samples were lower than 4.0 (KC1 extractable). We developed technique to combineh calcium magnesium phosphate and organic manure and significantly improved soil acidification problem, which could further increase soil exchangeable calcium content of 731.0 mg kg-1 and the exchangeable magnesium content of 20.0 mg kg-1 on the basis of common organic fertilizer. The acidity of plough layer was significantly decreased and the pH around fertilization sites increased more than 0.5 units.(4) Based on the main nutrient balance quantitative parameters, this study optimized the fertilization management protocols in the drip irrigation banana plantations. Our technology of nutrient management reduced 25.2% and 23.2% of nitrogen and potassium input and the environmental risks. It increased calcium and magnesium input by 87.4% and 57.5%, respectively, and improved the fruit quality of banana. Compared with the control plantation, the production in the improved banana plantation increased by 32.1% and won 25 days early on the market which significantly increased the economic benefits per unit area.(5) It was worth to mention that based on our studies, we not only created scientific technology for nutrient efficiency of banana production, but also established four levels of training systems for the head of the farm, administrators, commissioners and contracting households which can be very helpful to improve the application of the developed technology for banana production.In summary, our study uncovered the key problems of nutrient management and soil acidity of banana growth, and created the integrated technology to improve nutrient management of banana production.