Effect of Sources and Levels of Phosphorus with Zinc on Yield and Quality of Sugarcane

A study was conducted to ascertain the effect of sources and levels of phosphorus along with zinc on yield and quality of sugarcane for three consecutive years from 2004-2005 to 2006-2007 on sandy loam soil of Regional Agricultural Research Station, Anakapalle. The results of the study indicated that, application of phosphorus through diammonium phosphate (97.9 t/ha) or single super phosphate (95.8 t/ha) registered more or less similar cane yield. The effect of 100% recommended P2O5 (97.7 t/ha) or 125% recommended P2O5 (98.8 t/ha) was statistically non significant but found significantly superior to 75% recommended P2O5. However, significantly higher cane yield (98.1 t/ha) was recorded with application of 50 kg ZnSO4/ha as compared to lower level of 37.5 kg ZnSO4 (92.5 t/ha) due to higher number of millable canes. Hence, it can be concluded that application of 100 kg P2O5/ha through SSP or DAP and 50 kg ZnSO4/ha along with 112 kg nitrogen/ha was found optimum for sugarcane under sandy loam soils.