Effects of organic and chemical fertilizers on yield and total soluble solids (TSS) in Banana Cavendish group (AAA)

Banana fruit production in the Sudan covers a wide spectrum of activities ranging from local utilization of fruit with self-sufficiency through small farming for local market to large plantation for export. It is one of the most important fruits of Sudan. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted at two locations during 2009\2010 and 2010\2011 in split-split plot layout with four replications. The main plots were the two varieties of Cavendish Dwarf and Grand Nain (AAA) and the sub-plots are the fertilizer treatments arranged randomly. The treatments consisted of urea (400 g/mat/yearr), NPK (200 g/mat/year) and in combination with organic fertilizers, compost 10 kg/plant/year, manure 5 kg/plant/year). The results indicated that there were significant effects (p≤0.05) in fruit parameters (weight of bunch, hand, fingers and number of hands\bunch and fingers\bunch). The fertilizer treatment urea (400 g\mat\year), and urea plus organic manure in the two seasons were highly significant different. The results showed that there were highly significant increase in growth resulted from all fertilizer treatments and reflected in earlier shooting, 198 days in the main crop, 142 days in the first ratoon, and shorter time to flowering and harvest, 35 days in the main crop and 32 days in the first ratoon crop in Dwarf Cavendish compared to Grand Nain cultivars in the two seasons.   Key words: Banana, varieties, fertilizers.