Studies on organic nutrition in apple (Malus × domestica Borkh.)
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Date
2014
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YSPU
Abstract
The present investigations entitled “Study of organic nutrition in apple (Malus x domestica Borkh.)” were conducted on farmers field at Theog and Rohru in Shimla district of Himachal Pradesh, during the years 2011 - 2012. Fifteen years old apple trees of cultivar Starking Delicious grown on seedling rootstock were selected on the basis of uniform vigour. The trees were planted at a spacing of 6 x 6 m and trained on modified central leader training system. The study was split into two experiments with an objective to elucidate the effect of comparison of organic and inorganic plant nutrition on fruit quality parameters, leaf and soil nutrient status in apple orchards. The first experiment was survey work of organic and inorganic apple orchards, which were statistically analyzed on two-way analysis of data to study the effect of locations and nutrition sources. The second field trial was conducted to find out the nutrition requirement of fully grown apple trees through organic manures viz. FYM, vermicompost, wood ash and neemcake in comparison to recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF) held as control. Data was statistically analyzed using randomized block design (RBD) with five replications in each treatment. The variations in vegetative characteristics, fruit
parameters, and leaf and soil nutrient status were studied. From first experiment, organic apple orchards and T4 [FYM (100 kg/tree) + Vermicompost (25 kg/tree) + Wood ash (8 kg/tree) + Neem cake (4 kg/tree)] treatment in second experiment gave 43 and 21 per cent reduction in yield compared to inorganic orchards and recommended dose of fertilizers, respectively. However, organic orchards and T4 treatment was most effective for producing better fruit quality in terms of TSS, fruit firmness, total sugars, reducing sugars, titratable acidity and secondary metabolites such as anthocyanins, phenols and antioxidants. In addition, significant improvements in soil physical (bulk density, soil pH, MWHC, organic carbon) and biological
properties (total microbial counts) were also recorded. However, higher yield, leaf and soil nutrients status were observed under inorganic orchards and recommended dose of fertilizers during both the years of study. Therefore, it can be concluded that the use of organic manures might be useful as supplement to inorganic fertilizers and helpful in improving fruit quality and enhancing soil health with respect to physico-chemical and biological properties of the soil.
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Keywords
fruits, apples, orchards, research methods, nutrients, biological phenomena, vermicomposting, farmyard manure, organic fertilizers, wastes