(Dr. Jitendra Singh)SONALI GAHLOT2024-10-082024-10-082024https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810215518A field experiment entitled “Effect of rhizosphere‟s soil of different tree species on growth and development of Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus L.) cv. Chandra” was conducted during the year 2023-24, at the Instructional Farm, Department of Fruit Science, College of Horticulture and Forestry, Jhalawar. The experiment consisted of 8 treatments, viz. T0 (control), T1 (soil under banyan tree canopy), T2 (soil under palash tree canopy), T3 (soil under babul tree canopy), T4 (soil under jamun tree canopy), T5 (soil under tamarind tree canopy), T6 (soil under neem tree canopy), and T7 (soil under mandarin tree canopy). The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with three replications. Among different treatments, T1 treatment (soil under banyan tree canopy) was found significantly superior over other treatments with respect to growth and physiological parameters such as maximum height of plant (118.27 cm), rootstock girth (24.69 mm), scion girth (24.51 mm), number of leaves per plant (65.33), number of shoots per plant (17.67), length of internode (2.38 cm), number of nodes per plant (58.00), leaf petiole length (1.85 cm), leaf area index (2.01), chlorophylla (1.85 mg g-1), chlorophyllb (0.99 mg g-1), total chlorophyll (2.84 mg g-1), stomatal conductance (7.25 mmol m-2 s-1), relative water content (87.85%), membrane stability (28.27%) and minimum proline content (0.20 μmol g-1) in leaves at the time of final observation during March, 2024. The result further indicated that the application of treatment T1 (soil under banyan tree canopy) was the most effective in increasing the soil parameters like available N2 (329.33 kg ha-1), available P2O5 (28.33 kg ha-1), available K2O (294.33 kg ha-1), porosity (47.84%) and microbial population (bacteria 9.34 x 106 cfu g-1 and fungi 7.51 x 104 cfu g-1). It also reduced the soil pH (7.14), electrical conductivity (0.22 dS m-1), bulk density (1.13 g cm-3) and particle density (2.32 g cm-3). Thus, the T1 (soil under banyan tree canopy) treatment significantly improve the all soil parameters. Overall, T1 (soil under banyan tree canopy) treatment was adjudged better in respect to overall growth and development of jackfruit vis-à-vis soil improvement.EnglishThesis