Agronomic Effectiveness and Economical Worthiness of Controlled Release – Nano Material Coated Chemical Fertilizers in Sugar Cane

Abstract

A field trial to study effects of controlled release – nano material coated chemical fertilizers on growth, yield and economic worthiness of sugar cane variety Khon Kaen 3 was carried out during wet season 2016 in farmer’s field in Khon Kaen province. The experimental design was a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with 4 replications, each of which were consisted of 6 treatments, namely, no fertilizer, the uses of granulated chemical fertilizer (CF) and controlled release - nano chemical fertilizers (CR-NF) at different rates and sugarcane’s growth stages. The parameters measured were stem heights, stem diameters, stem number per rai, stem weight, cane and sugar yields and cane yields’ components at harvest that were comprising
in percent of CCS, Brix, Pol, Fiber and purity. Direct sugarcane showed marked responses to all CF and CR-NF application whereas CR-NF treated plants outgrowth and gave much higher cane and sugar yields as compared to the CF applied ones. The CR-NF application that produced the highest cane and sugar yields of 9.64 ton/rai and 1.53 ton/rai respectively were obtained from the use of 66 kg/rai CR-NF grade 12-12-12 of at 1 and 3 months after planting and 23 kg/rai of CR-NF grade 41-0-0 at 1 month after planting. Nevertheless, the application of 33 kg/rai of CRNF grade 12-12-12 at 1 month after planting earned the highest net revenue of 4,744 baht/rai.