Research Paper Research Journal of Agricultural Sciences 6(4): 830-833, July-August (2015) ISSN: 0976-1675 https:// www.rjas.info DI: 2575-0903-2015-213 Effect of Soil Application of Micronutrients on Quality of Mulberry and Cocoon Production K G Shilpashree, C T Subbarayappa and S Doreswamy Depertment of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, University of Agricultural Sciences (GKVK), Bengaluru - 560 065, Karnataka, India e-mail: shilpa.kgs@gmail.com Received: 09 March 2015; Revised accepted: 11 June 2015 A B S T R A C T A field experiment was conducted with victory 1 variety of mulberry to know the effect of soil application of micronutrients on quality of mulberry and cocoon production. Five micronutrients viz Fe, Zn, Mn Cu and B were applied at two levels (10 and 20 kg/ha of FeSO 4 , ZnSO 4 and MnSO 4 , 5 and 10 kg/ha of CuSO 4 and 1.25 and 2.5 kg/ha Borax) and in combination. Among different treatments applied, combined application of micronutrients (T 11 : T 1 + FeSO 4 @ 10 kg/ha + ZnSO 4 @ 10 kg/ha + MnSO 4 @ 10 kg/ha + CuSO 4 @ 5 kg/ha + Borax @ 2.5 kg/ha as soil application) showed significant increase in chlorophyll (2.813 mg/g), total sugars (16.423%), total soluble proteins (13.867%) and crude fibre (14.830%) as compared to control. Among different micronutrients applied individually, application of borax @ 2.5 kg/ha recorded higher contents of total sugars (15.867%), total soluble proteins (12.650%) and crude fibre (14.283%) and MnSO 4 @ 20 kg/ha recorded higher chlorophyll content (2.627 mg/g). Combined application of micronutrients (T 11 ) resulted in significantly higher cocoon weight, shell weight and shell ratio as compared to control. Similarly, longest filament length was obtained with the combined application micronutrients. But the denier values were not influenced by the application of micronutrients. Key words: Mulberry, Micronutrients, Biochemical parameters, Single filament length, Denier utrition plays an important role in improving the growth and development of Bombyx mori L. It is stated that silk production is dependent on the larval nutrition and nutritive value of mulberry leaves, which plays a very effective role in producing good cocoons (Legay 1958). Significant variations occur in the nutritional value and composition of mulberry leaves depending on factors viz nutrient management, weather, pests and disease as well as silkworm production (Ito 1978). Quality feed supplementation plays one of the important role by which cocoon and silk productivity can be increased and quality can be enhanced and maintained. Sengupta et al. (1972) revealed that Bombyx mori L. requires specific essential sugars, amino acids, proteins and vitamins for its normal growth, survival and also for improvement in the growth of silk gland. Good quality cocoons can be obtained when silkworms fed on nutritionally superior leaves which results in improved silk production (Seki and Oshikane 1959). In silkworms, silk fibroin is derived mainly from 4 amino acids: alanine, serine, glycine and tyrosine (Kirimura 1962) which come from their dietary source of protein and amino acids (Ito 1978). Silkworms obtain 72-86% of their amino acids from mulberry leaves and more than 60% of the absorbed amino acids are used for silk production (Lu and Jiang 1988). Soil organic matter is the natural source to restock the available micronutrients in soil and since Indian soils are low in organic matter, micronutrients requirement exceeds the natural supply. Besides, continuous use of high analysis micronutrient free fertilizers coupled with enhanced rate of micronutrient removal by mulberry due to intensive cropping with high yielding varieties have resulted in deficiency of micronutrient in the soils of mulberry garden. In moriculture, foliar application of micronutrients is in practice but soil application of micronutrients is not given necessary attention though micronutrients are known to have residual effect. Since literature availability towards emphasizing the soil application of micronutrients in mulberry is scanty, the present investigation was carried out to ascertain the effect of soil application of micronutrients on quality of mulberry and cocoon production. MATERIALS AND METHODS A field experiment was conducted at Krishi Vignana Kendra, Chamarajanagar during 2013-14 in established mulberry garden with Victory 1 variety planted at a spacing N 830