Abstract:
Banana is an important fruit crop of tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. It requires high quantity of nutrients that must be supplied through fertilization to obtain optimum yields. To diagnose nutrient deficiencies and exesses using plant analysis is appealing. The nutrient content of plants provides reliable information on their nutritional status at the date of sampling, thus giving a guide not only to any supplementary fertilizer needs of the current crop but also to the probable requirements of future crops. Although it is more costly than soil testing and needs more care in the handling of samples, this method is growing in importance. Interpretation is usually based on the total contents of nutrients in leaves, or other suitable plant parts, in comparison with critical nutrient concentrations or critical values. Another different and fairly new system of plant analysis interpretation is the Diagnosis and Recommendation Integrated System (DRIS) in which interpretation is based on a comparison of calculated elemental ratio indices with established norms. Since bananas are grown from between latitudes 33° north and south and on a wide range of soils, the mineral nutrition of the crop has attracted much attention. The overall requirements of nutrients cab be estimated from analysis of the whole plant and estimated plant growth. The grower needs to know the ability of the soil to meet these requirements and whether supplementary fertilizer is needed. Two approaches have been adopted to solve this problem viz., field experiments and the analysis of plant and soil with the aim of estimating the amount of fertilizer required to optimize yields. Lots of researches have been done regarding banana nutrition management and on its related aspects. This paper encompasses the reviews on the use of plant analysis as a diagnostic tool for banana nutrition management, banana sampling for plant analysis, utilization of plant analysis data, plant analysis interpretation using critical level concept and DRIS norms and most importantly banana nutrition management with special reference to Pakistan.
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