Nutrient management through organic and inorganic sources in brinjal-fenugreek cropping sequence
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Date
2015
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Abstract
The present investigation entitled “Nutrient management through organic and inorganic sources in brinjal-fenugreek cropping sequence” was carried out at experimental field of Division of Vegetable Science, SKUAST-Kashmir during Kharif 2012 & 2013. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. The experiment comprised of thirteen treatments viz., T1 (FYM @ 38t ha-1), T2 (VC @ 8t ha-1), T3 (PM @ 8t ha-1), T4 (SM @ 25t ha-1), T5 (DW @ 20t ha-1), T6 (7.5t FYM+ 1.5t VC+ 1.5t PM+ 5t SM + 4t DW ha-1), T7 (50% RFD + 50% FYM), T8 (50% RFD + 50% VC), T9 (50% RFD + 50% PM), T10 (50% RFD + 50% SM), T11 (50% RFD + 50% DW), T12 (RFD) and T13 (Control). Observations in main crop brinjal were recorded on plant height, fruit yield, fruit quality, nutrient uptake, nutrient availability and chemical characteristics of the studied soil. In residual crop i.e., fenugreek, observations were recorded on plant growth, quality, yield, yield related attributes and nutrient uptake.
Treatment T9 (50% RFD + 50% PM) recorded significantly higher values for days to first fruit picking (53.40), plant height (126.51 cm), number of branches plant-1 (7.06), number of fruits plant-1 (16.50), fruit length (13.41 cm), fruit diameter (7.96cm), average fruit weight (65.65g), fruit yield plant-1 (1.08 kg), fruit yield hectare-1 (395.42 q), duration of fruiting (92.16), nutrient uptake (167.57 kg N, 30.49 kg P & 170.36 kg K ha-1) for main crop and (54.40 kg N, 25.39 kg P & 48.04 kg K ha-1) for residual crop and available nutrients (340.63 kg N, 30.00 kg P & 230.55 kg K ha-1). Treatment T9 was followed by T8 (50% RFD + 50% VC) exhibiting superiority for most of characters. Among sole application of organic sources, PM @ 8t ha-1 (T3) proved better than FYM, SM, VC & DW in improving the growth and yield characters. Among organic integrations, Treatment T6 (7.5t FYM+ 1.5t VC+ 1.5t PM+ 5t SM + 4t DW ha-1) recorded significantly higher values for days to first fruit picking (58.50), plant height (116.93 cm), no. of branches plant-1 (6.08), number of fruits plant-1 (14.85), fruit length (11.19cm), fruit diameter (6.26cm), average fruit weight (58.03 g), fruit yield plant-1 (0.85 kg), fruit yield ha-1 (316.51 q), duration of fruiting (82.31), nutrient uptake (110.59 kg N, 18.16 kg P & 97.99 kg K ha-1) for main crop and (42.07 kg N, 15.25 kg P & 33.56 kg K ha-1) for residual crop and available nutrients (310.50 kg N, 27.00 kg P & 214.34 kg K ha-1). However, treatment T12 (RFD) proved superior in improving characters related to growth and yield as compared to sole organic manures and integration of organic manures in both main crop and residual crop. Treatment T6 (7.5t FYM+ 1.5t VC+ 1.5t PM+ 5t SM + 4t DW ha-1) proved significantly superior in improving quality traits as compared to integration of organic manures with inorganic fertilizers in both main crop as well as residual crop, recording maximum dry matter content (9.91%), TSS (6.75oBrix), vitamin C (18.03 mg 100g-1), anthocyanin content (0.73 mg 100g-1) in main crop and vitamin C content (64.63 mg 100g-1), protein content (6.49%), dry matter content (13.74%) and chlorophyll (15.42 mg 100g-1) in residual crop. Treatment T6 also proved superior in improving the chemical properties of soil viz., pH, EC and organic carbon content as compared to all other sole organic and integration of organic manures with inorganic fertilizers. Maximum reduction in soil pH (6.45) was observed in treatment T6 and highest EC (0.33 dSm-1) and organic carbon content (2.98%) were also recorded from same treatment. In main crop brinjal, treatment T9 fetched maximum net returns of Rs. 316461.5 with returns of 5.00 Re-1 invested. Treatment T9 was followed by treatment T12 (RFD) recording the B: C ratio of 4.75. In residual crop fenugreek same treatment recorded maximum net returns of Rs. 57902.04 with returns of 2.24 Re-1 invested. Hence it could be concluded that the integration of PM with inorganic fertilizers in equal proportions (50:50) exhibited superiority over sole application of organic manures, integration of organic manures and integration of organic manures with inorganic fertilizers with respect to growth, yield characters and soil health under study. For quality attributes, integration of organic manures proved superior as compared to application of sole organic manures and integration of organic manures with inorganic fertilizers.