Response of Clove (Syzygium aromaticum L.) Seedlings to the Foliar Application of Major and Micro Nutrients in the Nursery

Abstract

Clove (Syzygium aromaticum L.) is an important perennial spice crop, but its seedlings exhibit slow early growth and generally require a prolonged nursery period before attaining transplantable size. Inadequate or imbalanced availability of essential nutrients may further restrict seedling growth and vigour. Foliar application of balanced major and micronutrients may therefore help improve early vegetative growth, root development, and seedling quality under nursery conditions. An experiment was conducted at the Main Agricultural and Horticultural Research Station, Iruvakki, to evaluate the effect of foliar application of major and micronutrients on the growth, root development, seedling quality and economics of clove seedlings under nursery conditions. Nine treatments were evaluated in a Completely Randomized Design with three replications. The treatments comprised water-soluble 19:19:19 alone or in combination with ZnSO4, MgSO4, and borax at different concentrations. Growth observations were recorded up to 210 days after treatment. At 210 days, 19:19:19 (0.5%) + MgSO4 (0.2%) (T5) recorded the maximum plant height (14.87 cm), number of leaves (7.40), collar girth (3.82 mm), leaf length (9.03 cm), leaf breadth (3.66 cm), leaf area (162.67 cm²), leaf area index (0.42), root length (28.83 cm), number of secondary roots (19.53), number of tertiary roots (23.00), root thickness (3.77 mm) and volume index (5.68). The highest root volume (1.89 cc) and Dickson quality index (0.06) were recorded with 19:19:19 (0.5%) + MgSO4 (0.1%) (T4). Treatment T5 also recorded the highest benefit-cost ratio (1.82). These results indicate that foliar application of 19:19:19 (0.5%) + MgSO4 (0.2%) was the most effective treatment for improving overall clove seedling growth, root development, and economic returns under the nursery conditions of this study.