Production of safe food through organic farming while maintaining soil sustainability is the crucial challenge of recent time. As such a pot experiment was conducted using animal manure (TAM), neem-cake (TNC), vermico...Production of safe food through organic farming while maintaining soil sustainability is the crucial challenge of recent time. As such a pot experiment was conducted using animal manure (TAM), neem-cake (TNC), vermicompost (TVC), biochar (TBC) and urea (TU) with control (TC) to assess their capacity to stimulate <i>Spinacia</i> <i>oleracea</i> growth under field condition and their impact on soil fertility. Six treatments: TC, TAM, TNC, TVC, TBC, TU with three replications were used in completely randomized design (CRD). All the plant growth parameters were measured at regular interval up to maturity. Complete chemical analysis of plant tissue, amendments and soil was carried out. Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) under different treatments was calculated at 45 and 60 days. All the treatments showed statistically significant (P < 0.001) increase in yield over control and urea. The highest plant height (24 cm), leaf area index (0.154), and dry weight (1254 kg/ha) were found at TNC which increased respectively 132%, 258%, 450% over control and 125%, 431%, 448% over urea. TVC was the second best treatment followed by TBC for plant growth. NUE was significantly (P < 0.001) higher in treatment TVC than any other treatments and was higher at maturity than vegetative state. TNC had lower NUE than TVC and TBC but the inherent N content was higher in TNC than TVC and TBC. Uptake of certain macro nutrients showed significant (P < 0.05) positive correlation with plant growth parameters <i>i.e.</i>, plant height with P (R = 0.887);leaf area with N (R = 0.957) and P (R = 0.985);dry weight with N (R = 0.996), P (R = 0.994) and K (R = 0.860). Significant (P < 0.001) increase in post-harvest soil C and CEC content was found with all the treatments. The highest availability of N, P and S was observed under treatment TNC. For short duration crop like spinach, TNC is the best option followed by TVC as they release nutrient quickly than TBC and TAM.展开更多
文摘Production of safe food through organic farming while maintaining soil sustainability is the crucial challenge of recent time. As such a pot experiment was conducted using animal manure (TAM), neem-cake (TNC), vermicompost (TVC), biochar (TBC) and urea (TU) with control (TC) to assess their capacity to stimulate <i>Spinacia</i> <i>oleracea</i> growth under field condition and their impact on soil fertility. Six treatments: TC, TAM, TNC, TVC, TBC, TU with three replications were used in completely randomized design (CRD). All the plant growth parameters were measured at regular interval up to maturity. Complete chemical analysis of plant tissue, amendments and soil was carried out. Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) under different treatments was calculated at 45 and 60 days. All the treatments showed statistically significant (P < 0.001) increase in yield over control and urea. The highest plant height (24 cm), leaf area index (0.154), and dry weight (1254 kg/ha) were found at TNC which increased respectively 132%, 258%, 450% over control and 125%, 431%, 448% over urea. TVC was the second best treatment followed by TBC for plant growth. NUE was significantly (P < 0.001) higher in treatment TVC than any other treatments and was higher at maturity than vegetative state. TNC had lower NUE than TVC and TBC but the inherent N content was higher in TNC than TVC and TBC. Uptake of certain macro nutrients showed significant (P < 0.05) positive correlation with plant growth parameters <i>i.e.</i>, plant height with P (R = 0.887);leaf area with N (R = 0.957) and P (R = 0.985);dry weight with N (R = 0.996), P (R = 0.994) and K (R = 0.860). Significant (P < 0.001) increase in post-harvest soil C and CEC content was found with all the treatments. The highest availability of N, P and S was observed under treatment TNC. For short duration crop like spinach, TNC is the best option followed by TVC as they release nutrient quickly than TBC and TAM.
