Impact of fertigation and plastic mulch on yield, economics and fruit quality of guava

Fertigation and plastic mulch are advanced agronomic practices that enhance nutrient use efficiency, soil moisture retention, and overall crop productivity. A field experiment on the cultivation of guava was carried out on sandy clay loam soil of the Kharagpur region of India and studied the response of guava under drip fertigation and plastic mulch. This study's aim was to optimize the amount of water-soluble fertilizer (WSF) application through the drip. Four treatments were 100, 80, 60 and 40% of the recommended amount of soluble fertilizer application through the drip at 80% of crop water requirement, and two treatments of solid fertilizer application as side dressing to plants, irrigation through drip with and without plastic mulch. Quality analyses of guava fruit were performed to study the influence of different treatments. Economic analysis was done to know the economic feasibility of using drip fertigation and black plastic mulch for the cultivation of guava. Fruit quality analysis showed that there was no definite trend obtained for the weight, volume, true density, and the dimension of fruits. The peel: pulp: seed ratio, ascorbic acid, total soluble solids (TSS), total sugar, reducing sugar content and TSS to acid ratio were highest and the pH of fruit and ash content were lowest for treatment 80% fertilizer requirement with drip fertigation (T2). The yield of guava crop has significantly increased under drip fertigation as compared to solid fertilizer application as side dressing. The yield of guava was highest for the treatment T2 as 26.48 t/ha. Economic analysis showed that the B-C ratio, net income, and fertilizer use efficiency (FUE) were higher with treatment T2, i.e., fertigation through drip and plastic mulch (0.8 FDM) as compared to other treatments. Based on the economic analysis, treatment T2 (0.8FDM) resulted in the highest net income from 1 ha area with INR 401717 and B:C ratio of 4.0 followed by T5 (3.9), T3 (3.9), T4 (3.5), T6 (3.3) and T1 (3.1) in that order.