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Subject: Agriculture × End date: 2017 × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    EFFECT OF MACHINE VS MANUAL PLUCKING ON QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE TRAITS OF TEA SHOOTS
    (AAU, Jorhat, 2017-07) Saikia, Jyotishman; Deka, Mridul
    A study on effect of machine vs manual plucking on quantitative and qualitative traits of tea shoot was undertaken during March-November, 2016 in Experimental Garden for Plantation Crops of the department of Tea Husbandry and Technology, AAU, Jorhat-13, Assam. The study was conducted with Randomised Block Design accommodating seven treatment combinations viz. Hand plucking from March to November (T1), One man operated machine plucking from March-November (T2), Two men operated machine plucking from March to November (T3), Hand plucking once from March-June and again from October to November and with one man operated machine plucking in between July-September (T4), Hand plucking from once March-June and again from October to November and two men operated machine plucking in between July-September (T5), Hand plucking from March-June followed by one man operated machine plucking from July to November (T6) and Hand plucking from March-June followed by two men operated machine plucking from July-November(T7). The plucking machine used in the study were Tea Leaf Harvester, Kisan Kraft KK-TH-525 as one man operated and Ochiai Hamono Kogyo 133-100 as two men operated machine. The result of the data on quantitative and qualitative traits including some economic important parameters were grouped into four flushing season. viz. first flush, second flush, rain flush, autumn flush. Quantitatively hand plucking from March-November (full season) gave significantly highest number of plucking round and also recorded the highest green leaf yield. On the other hand the lowest number of plucking round and hence the lowest green leaf yield observed in full season machine plucking of both the make studied. In case of quality parameters the two categories of plucked shoots considered were fine and coarse tea shoots. The highest percentage of fine tea shoots plucked throughout the full cropping season came from hand plucking modes. Two men operated machine when used for full season recorded the lowest fine shoots. The coarse plucked tea shoots which indicate poor quality accounted for the highest percentage in case of machine plucking for the full season irrespective of the number of operators involved. With regard to dormancy index both manual plucking and machine plucking did not influence it significantly during first flush and second flush cropping season. However the later recorded higher value of dormancy index compared to the former ones as the cropping season advanced to rain flush and autumn flush. The machine plucking varied significantly the time required to complete the operation to the lowest value while the manual hand plucking took the highest time, Morever one man operated machine plucking involved the lowest man day throughout the full season of plucking. In respect the cost of plucking for full season the one man operated machine accounted for 50.24% of full season manual plucking. The two men operated machine incurred higher percentage of cost compared to the one man operated ones accounted for 71.37% of full season manual plucking.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    EFFECT OF BIOFERTILIZERS ON GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF NURSERY TEA PLANTS
    (AAU, Jorhat, 2017-12) MISHRA, DHRUBAJYOTI; Saikia, Gautam K.
    A field experiment entitled “Effect of biofertilizers on growth and development of nursery tea plants” was carried out at the Experimental Garden for Plantation Crops, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat in the year 2016 to study the effect of biofertilizer enriched subsoil as a sleeve media on growth and development of nursery tea plants, nutrient availability in sleeve mixture and nutrient uptake pattern by plants. The experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The treatments consisted of: T1 Control (Top soil + cowdung + SSP), T2 (Sub-soil + cowdung+ SSP), T3 (Sub-soil + cowdung + SSP + Microbial consortium), T4 (Sub-soil + cowdung + RP) and T5 (Sub-soil + cowdung + RP + Microbial consortium). The treatments were replicated four times. There were 25 plants in each replication and TV 23 was used as planting material. The microbial consortium was a combination of rhizobium, azotobacter, azospirillum and phosphate solubilizing bacteria. Experimental findings revealed thatbiofertilizer enriched sleeve mixture influenced the growth characters of tea plants in terms of plant height, number of leaves and collar girth. Treatment with sub-soil + cowdung + SSP + Microbial consortium (T3) recorded the highest values for all these growth characters. This treatment also resulted in higher shoot: root ratio as well as highest fresh and dry weight of shoots among all the treatments. On the other hand, the root volume, fresh and dry weight of roots were also found to be highest under the treatment with Sub-soil + cowdung + RP + microbial consortium (T5). The highest microbial population was also found under the treatment with sub-soil + cowdung + SSP + microbial consortium (T3) which also recorded the highest values in terms of available nitrogen and phosphorus in soil. However, the effect of biofertilizer enriched sleeve mixture on available potassium in soil was non-significant. In terms of bacterial and fungal population and microbial biomass carbon, T3 (sub-soil + cowdung + SSP + microbial consortium) recorded the highest values. T3 also resulted in highest NPK content in leaves.