Quality Characters of Tannia [Xanthosoma sagittifolium (L.). Schott] as Affected by Tillage, Planting Methods, Plant Nutrition and Application of Soil Conditioners.

Background: Tannia is one of the six most important root and tuber crops grown world-wide. Tannia possess good keeping quality compared to other vegetables. The tubers are considered more nutritious than colocasia and potato. But the crop is still underexploited compared to other tuber crops. Hence the study was undertaken to identify the effect of tillage and nutrition on quality characters of tannia. Methods: A field experiment was conducted at College of Agriculture, Vellayani, Kerala during 2014-15 to study the effect of organic nutrition on quality characters of tannia. The design used was split plot design with four replications. The treatments consisted of tillage and planting methods as main plot treatments (L1-conventional tillage followed by pit system, L2-conventional tillage followed by mound system, L3-deep tillage followed by pit system and L4-deep tillage followed by mound system). The sub plot treatments were combinations of soil conditioners (S1-control, S2-coir pith, S3-rice husk) and two nutrition systems (N1-integrated nutrient management (INM) and N2-organic nutrition). Result: Results of the experiment revealed that the quality characters of tannia was improved by deep tillage to a depth of 30 cm followed by pit system of planting, application of coir pith as soil conditioner @ 500 g plant-1 and organic nutrition (FYM @37.5 t ha-1 + wood ash @ 2 t ha-1). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]