The Influence of Zinc Sulphate (ZnSO4) Application on Growth and Total Soluble Solid in Juice of Sugarcane Grown Under Sandy Soil

Abstract

Zinc deficiency is one problem that affects growth of sugarcane especially under sandy soil condition, which zinc possibly lose from soil profile. Therefore, zinc application to sugarcane cropping systems under sandy soil may promising approachto ameliorate sugarcane growth and total soluble solid in juice. The objectives of this research was to study the effect of zinc application on growth and total soluble solid in juice of sugarcane grown under sandy soil condition. The experiment consisted of five treatments i.e. 1) Control (non chemical fertilizer), 2) Chemical fertilizer at recommended rate (CF), 3) Chemical fertilizer at recommended rate combined with 4 kgZn/ha (CF+4 kgZn/ha), 4) Chemical fertilizer at recommended rate combined with 8 kgZn/ha (CF+8 kgZn/ha) and 5) Chemical fertilizer at recommended rate combined with 10 kgZn/ha (CF+10 kgZn/ha) with 3 replications using Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) . Our results indicated that plant height, stalk diameter, SPAD reading and total soluble solid in juice were not significantly different between treatments (P<0.05). However, CF+4 kgZn/ha treatment provided significantly tillering higher (7.78 tiller/hill) than control and CF treatments.