Performance of Chilli (Capsicum annuum) cv. ‘Krishna Jolokia’ as influenced by organic inputs and microbial consortium
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Date
2018
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AAU, Jorhat
Abstract
A field experiment was conducted at the Experimental Farm, Department of Horticulture, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat during November 2016 to march 2017 to study the “Performance of Chilli (Capsicum annuum) cv. „Krishna Jolokia‟ as influenced by organic inputs and microbial consortium”. The experiment was laid out with Randomized Block Design and replicated three times. There were seven treatments consisting of T1 [RDF (120:60:60 kg ha-1 NPK + FYM @ 10 t ha-1)], T2 (Compost @ 2.5 t ha-1 + microbial consortium), T3 (Compost @ 5 t ha-1+ microbial consortium), T4 (Vermicompost @ 2.5 t ha-1 + microbial consortium), T5 (Vermicompost @ 5 t ha-1 + microbial consortium), T6 (Enriched compost @ 2.5 t ha-1) and T7 (Enriched compost @ 5 t ha-1) with an objective to study the effect of organic, and microbial consortium on growth, yield and quality of chilli as well as soil chemical and biological properties. The results revealed that growth, yield and yield attributing characters were significantly influenced by the application of different nutrient sources. T1 recorded the highest value in all the growth, yield and yield attributing characters among all the treatments. However, among the organic treatments the highest plant height (79.85 cm), number of primary branches per plant (5.6) in T3, number of secondary branches per plant (9.8) in T2 were observed. The highest number of fruits per plant (95.63), fruit length (7.98 cm), fruit girth (0.98 cm), fruit weight (1.91 g), seeds per fruit (96.68), fruit yield per plant (256.63 g) and fruit yield per hectare (12.07 t) were found in treatment T5. All the growth, yield and yield attributing parameters were significantly poor in T6 (Enriched compost @ 2.5 t ha-1). Among the quality parameters, the organic treatments recorded superior results when compared to inorganic treatments. The highest ascorbic acid content (80.90 mg 100g-1) in T5, moisture content (91.14%) in T1 and pungency (35,000 SHU) in T7 were recorded. The results of soil analysis after harvest clearly indicated that the available NPK in all the treatments improved over initial availability. The microbial population and various enzymatic activities also improved markedly over the initial value. However, soil parameter studies revealed that soil organic carbon, N, P, K, Microbial Biomass Carbon and various soil enzyme activities were found highest in T7.
Economics of production showed that the highest B:C ratio of 4.60 was observed in T1 [RDF (120:60:60 kg ha-1 NPK + FYM @ 10 t ha-1)] followed by organic treatment T5 (Vermicompost @ 5 t ha-1 + microbial consortium) with 3.78. Hence, considering the positive effect on growth, yield, quality and soil health, T5 can be considered as the best for adopting at the field level to reap good economic yield with better quality, sustained soil health and high net return.