Journal of Crop and Weed, 5(1): 203-205 (2009)

Effect of mulching on ginger (Zingiber officinale Rose) in the hilly region

of Darjeeling district.
D. K. SENGUPTA , 1T. K. MAITY AND B. DASGUPTA
All India Networking Project on Betel vine,
1
Department of Vegetable Crops, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya,
Mohanpur 741252,Nadia, West-Bengal, India.

ABSTRACT
A field trial was conducted at the Horticultural Research Station, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pedong, Darjeeling,
West Bengal for two consecutive years to study the effect of mulching on growth and yield of ginger (Zingiber officinale Rose).
The beds of ginger cv. gorubathan was covered with four different mulching materials viz. wheat straw, ulu-grass and dry leaves
@ 5.0 tones per hectare and black polyethylene sheet @ 2.0 quintal per hectare immediately after planting of seed rhizomes,
along with a control plot. Among the different mulching materials, dry leaves showed maximum height (78.05 cm), number of
pseudostem per clump (4.26), leaves per clump (62.65) and highest yield (52.17 t/ha) with an increase in yield by 12.92 t/ha over
control followed by wheat straw and ulu-grass.
Key Words: Mulching, rhizome and ginger

Ginger is a high value cash crop and requires lot of ulu-grass, dry leaves @ 5 tonnes per hactare and black
management practices for increasing its production polyethylene sheet @ 2 quintal per hectare, were used
and productivity. A good number of experiments have immediately after planting the rhizomes in beds as
been conducted to increase the yield of ginger. mulching materials along with a control.
Sengupta, Maity and Dasgupta (2008) have shown Recommended cultural practices were followed to
how to increase in rhizome yield in ginger using raise a successful crop. Growth and yield observations
growth regulators, particularly in hilly region of were recorded at the age of about 7 months. The data
Darjeeling district of West Bengal. Mulching is an obtained were statistically analysed as per Panse and
important component in the management practices of Sukhatme (1978).
ginger. Mulching the fields with green manure is the
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
most important operations carried out for successful
ginger production. In the dry months, it conserves the Height of the plant
moisture in the soil and enhances soil temperature for
proper germination of the rhizome. In addition, it The results presented in Table 1 clearly
checks weed growth and enriches the fertility of the indicated that different mulching materials
soil after decomposition. Further it prevents washing significantly influenced the plant height. The dry
out of soil and nutrients during heavy rains leaves and wheat straw showed better results than the
(Randhawa and Nandpuri, 1969 and Mohanty 1977). others. However, both the treatments were at par with
Mulching has been found to increase the yield of each other. The maximum plant height (78.05cm) was
ginger (Acian and Inisumbing, 1976 and Mohanty and recorded in dry leaves followed by 74.07cm in wheat
Sharma, 1978). Keeping in view of the above facts, straw. The use of ulu-grass and black polyethylene as
the present investigation was undertaken to study the mulching materials also resulted in significant
effect of different mulching materials on the growth increase in plant height over control.
and yield of ginger in the hilly regions of Darjeeling Number of pseudostems per clump
district, West Bengal, India.
The number of pseudostems per clump
MATERIALS AND METHODS responded significantly to different mulching
A field experiment was conducted in the materials. The use of wheat straw, black polyethylene
Horticultural Research Station, BCKV, Pedong, and ulu grass responded almost equally to that of
Darjeeling, West Bengal for two consecutive years control and were at par (Table 1). The highest number
from March to November following RBD with five of pseudostem (4.26 nos.) was obtained in dry leaves
replications. The soil type of the plot was sandy loam mulch which was significantly different from control
with a pH ranging from 5.65 to 5.80, having organic as well as other treatments. The lowest number of
carbon 1.45%, total nitrogen 0.158%, available pseudostem (3.58) were recorded in ulu grass.
phosphorus 11.50 kg/ha and available potash 75.00
kg/ha. The variety gorubathan was used as a planting
material. The treatment comprising of wheat straw,

Email: b_dasgupta25@yahoo.co.in
Effect of mulching ..... Darjeeling district

.Number of leaves per clump turmeric as compared to organic mulch. It can be

concluded that mulching with dry leaves and wheat
Similar to that of plant height and pseudostem straw can be successfully used for enhancing the
numbers, the number of leaves per clump was growth and yield of ginger.
statistically significant in different treatments
(Table1). The number of leaves produced in dry REFERENCES
leaves and wheat straw mulch were 62.65 and 55.31,
respectively. The results obtained with the use of ulu- Aclan, F. and Quisumbing, E. C. 1976. Fertilizer
grass and black polyethylene were of 50.95, and 51.56 requirement, mulch and light attenuation on
number of leaves per clump, respectively. the yield and quality of ginger. Philippine
Agriculturist, 60 : 183-91.
Yield per plant
Groszmann, H. M. 1954. Ginger production. Ad.
The results presented in Table1, clearly Agric. J., 78 : 259-62.
revealed that the yield per plant of ginger was
significantly influenced by the use of different Hussain, A.; Waheed, A. and Zafar, M. A. 1969.
mulching materials. Dry leaves mulch produced Effect of mulches on germination, growth
pronounced effect with regard to plant yield against and yield of turmeric. W. Pakistan J. Agric.
the other treatments in both the years. Use of black Res., 7: 153-57.
polyethylene was less effective towards increasing the Minakshi, S. 1959. Ginger earns good income for the
yield of the crop. However, the maximum and West Coast. Indian Fmg., 9: 12-13.
minimum yield of 0.260 and 0.195 kg per plant were
recorded from dry leaves and control, respectively. Mohanty, D. C. 1977. Studies on the effect of
different mulch materials on the performance
Yield per hectare of ginger in the hills of Pottangi. Orissa J.
Perusal of the data presented in Table1 Hort., 5: 11-17.
revealed significant differences in yield by use of Mohanty, D. C. and Sarma, Y. N. 1978. Performance
different mulching materials. The yield ranged of ginger in tribal areas of Orissa, India, as
between 39.25t/ha and 52.17t/ha. The yield recorded influenced by method of planting, seed
from dry leaves and wheat straw mulched crop were treatment, manuring and mulching. J.
52.17 and 49.30 tonnes per hectare, respectively Plantation Crops, 6 : 14-16.
followed by ulu grass (46.42t/ha) and black
polythelene (41.05t/ha). Panse V. G. and Sukhatme, P. V. 1978. Statistical
Methods for Agricultural Workers. Indian
The increased growth as observed in the Council of Agricultural Research, New
present investigation by the use of either dry leaves or Delhi.
wheat straw were due to uniform germination,
conservation of soil moisture and better weed control Randhawa, K. S. and Nandpuri, K. S. 1969. Grow
as compared to other treatments. Groszmann (1954) ginger in your kitchen garden. Prog. Fmg., 5
reported uniform germination by mulching which : 6-7
corroborates with this findings. Also mulches
Sengupta, D.K., Maity, T. K. and Dasgupta, B. 2008.
facilitated in better mineralization and availability of
Effect of growth regulators on growth and
nutrients in modifying the various yield attributes to
rhizome production of ginger (Zingiber
the better advantage of rhizome yield (Minakshi,
officinale Rose.) in the hilly region of
1959). The reduced growth in black polyethylene
Darjeeling district. J. Crop and Weed, 4:10-
mulch was also reported by Hussain et al., (1969) in
13.
 sangupta et al.

Table 1: Effect of different mulching materials on growth and yield of ginger

Plant height (cm) No. of pseudostem/ clump No. of leaves/clump Yield/plant (kg) Projected yield (t/ha)
Treatments
1st year 2nd year Mean 1st year 2nd year Mean 1st year 2nd year Mean 1st year 2nd year Mean 1st year 2nd year Mean

Wheat straw 70.99 77.16 74.07 3.68 4.20 3.94 52.98 57.64 55.31 0.244 0.249 0.246 48.80 49.80 49.30

Ulu-grass 72.24 70.73 71.48 3.59 3.57 3.58 49.54 52.36 50.95 0.234 0.230 0.232 46.85 46.00 46.42

Dry leaves 76.75 79.35 78.05 4.30 4.22 4.26 61.06 64.24 62.65 0.258 0.263 0.260 51.60 52.75 52.17

Black
68.53 70.79 69.66 3.61 4.10 3.85 49.57 53.56 51.56 0.203 0.207 0.205 40.65 41.45 41.05
polyethylene

Control 65.71 63.56 64.63 3.65 3.69 3.67 44.92 42.03 43.47 0.201 0.190 0.195 40.35 38.15 39.25

S.Em () 1.660 2.054 1.493 0.177 0.110 0.106 2.013 1.949 1.705 0.012 0.005 0.001 1.504 1.340 0.722

LSD (0.05) 5.114 6.328 4.600 NS 0.340 0.326 6.202 6.005 5.253 0.036 0.015 0.003 4.633 4.128 2.224