Abstract

                                Acid lime (Citurs aurantifolia Swingle) belongs to the family Rutaceae and widely grown in tropical and subtropical regions of India. India is the largest producer of acid lime in the world. In India, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Bihar are grown in larger area. In Tamil Nadu, commercially cultivated in Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, Turicorin, Dindigul, Madurai, Theni, Virudhunagar and Perambalur districts. Fruits are being used for preparation of pickles and beverages. They are rich in vitamin C, minerals and salts. Micronutrients such as Zinc, Iron and boron play a vital role in acid lime for growth and development. With this background, the present experiment on studies on the effect of micronutrients in acid lime var. PKM-1 was conducted at Citrus Research Station (TNAU), Sankarankovil during 2020-21 to study the effect of micronutrients on growth, yield and quality of acid lime. Foliar application was given twice in a season viz., the first spray was given during peak flowering stage and next spray during fruit set stage on selected five trees for each treatment at farmer’s field. The trial was laid out in a randomized block design (RBD) with thirteen treatments and replicated thrice. The treatments details are 0.5 % Ferrous sulphate (T1), 1.0 % Ferrous sulphate (T2), 0.5 % Zinc sulphate (T3), 1.0 % Zinc sulphate (T4), 0.5 % Copper sulphate (T5), 1.0 % Copper sulphate (T6), 0.5 % Manganese sulphate (T7), 1.0 % Manganese sulphate (T8), 0.1 % borax (T9), 0.3 % borax (T10), 0.5 % Ferrous sulphate + 0.5 % Zinc sulphate + 0.5 % Copper sulphate + 0.5 % Manganese sulphate + 0.1 % borax (T11), 1.0 % Ferrous sulphate + 1.0 % Zinc sulphate + 1.0 % Copper sulphate + 1.0 % Manganese sulphate + 0.3 % borax (T12) and control (T13). Results revealed that T12 recorded the highest values of growth and yield contributing traits such as plant height (5.50 m), number of fruits per plant (652.20), fruit weight (41.50 g), number of seeds (8.11) and yield per plant (15.87 kg/tree) and quality traits viz., TSS (6.48 oBrix), juice content (35.50 ml), ascorbic acid content (35.02 mg/100g), acidity (9.10 %) and B:C ratio (2.15) and followed by T11 whereas the lowest values was observed in control (T13).

Key words : Citrus, micronutrients, yield, growth, quality characters, B:C ratio