Using possibilities of some agricultural wastes in open-field banana cultivation

Abstract

Usage of farmyard manure is the one of the major factors to increase production cost in banana cultivation. Besides increasing the production costs, other disadvantages of farmyard manure are playing active role on carrying diseases and pests and also difficulty in obtaining. Due to the stated disadvantages, the use farmyard manure of banana farmers is decreasing. Therefore, we need alternative ways to increase the organic matter capacity of the soil. The effects of alternative applications to farmyard manure, namely banana waste and mushroom compost were investigated. The objective of the study was to evaluate effects of these applications on some morphological properties (plant height, plant circumference and number of leaves), yield (number of hands, number of fingers, bunch weight, finger weight and length) and quality properties (flesh/skin ratio, total soluble solids matter, sugars etc.) under open-field banana cultivation. The experiment was conducted in Kargıcak location of Alanya in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with 3 replications. Experimental results revealed that using of farmyard manure and waste treatments positively affected the yield parameters like the number of hands and fingers, finger length, finger weight and bunch weight. On the other hand, treatments did not have a statistically significant effect on fruit quality parameters like soluble solids content, titratable acidity, pH and ash.

Keywords

• Bananas
• Organic waste
• Yield and quality
• Open-field cultivation