INFLUENCE OF INTEGRATED NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT ON SEED YIELD OF OKRA (Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Monech) cv. VRO-6
Mahesh Babarao Ghuge*1, Rajesh Lekhi2 and Shraddha Karcho3
Department of Horticulture, R.V.S.K.V.V., Gwalior
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ABSTRACT
The present investigation entitled “Influence of integrated nutrient management on seed yield of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench) cv. VRO-6” was taken up at Horticulture Nursery, College of Agriculture, Gwalior (M.P.). Application of 75 % NPK + FYM + PSB + Azotobacter resulted in the dry fruits per plant (17.73), seed yield (9.7 q/ha), length of dry fruit per plant (16.93 cm), diameter of dry fruit (18.33 mm), 1000 seed weight (26.63 g), weight of seed per plant (77.84 g) and minimum day’s for fruit maturity (87.27 days).
Key words: Okra, Integrated nutrient management, Seed yield, VRO-6
Introduction
Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench) is the native of tropical and subtropical Africa. It is one of the most important vegetables grown commercially almost during the whole year in India. Several varieties of okra are grown all over the world, various botanical species available in India and abroad are - (i) Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench (ii) Abelmoschus maschatus Medicus and (iii) Abelmoschus manihot.
Providing good quality seeds is one of the most important and easiest means to accelerate the productivity of vegetable in the country. Total requirement of seeds in the country is 51,000 tones, while the actual availability is at 41,000 tons. In the country, the total area under okra is around 409(000’ Ha), while the production is of 4192.8 MT. (Indian Horticulture Database, 2008). As is well known, vegetable seed production is unorganized sector (farmer’s own saved seeds) quite high in this country reaching nearly 50% of the seed demand. There is need to harness the potential by improving the quality of seed at par with international seed quality standards.
Integrated nutrient management (INM) system envisages use of organic manures, green manures, bio-fertilizers along with chemical fertilizers. From the stand point of crop yield and quality, nutrient supply from both organic and inorganic sources is important. The INM helps to restore and sustain soil fertility and crop productivity. It may also help to check the emerging deficiency of nutrient other than N, P and K. Nutritional imbalances in the soil cause instability in productivity & hidden hunger of nutrient besides resulting in poor nutritional quality of vegetable.
Major components of INM are organic manure, Bio-fertilizer & Chemical fertilizer. Organic manure not only balances the nutrient supply but also improves the physical & chemical properties of soil. In the present Indian Agriculture, keeping in view the inadequate availability of organic sources of nutrients & expected yield decline at least in the initial years, complete substitution of chemical fertilizer is not necessarily warranted. Rather organic sources should be used as partial replacement of the chemical fertilizer.Thus, a strategy for judicious combination of both organic & inorganic sources of nutrient is the most viable option for nutrient management. It will be economically viable & also help in attaining sustainability in prod & maintaining soil health & environment.
Materials and methods
A field experiment was conducted at experimental field of Horticulture Nursery, College of Agriculture, Gwalior. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design having three replications, each comprising of 8 treatments namely T1 Recommended Fertilizer Dose (RFD) 100:50:50 NPK Kg/Ha, T2 – 125% NPK (RFD), T3 – 75% NPK + FYM + PSB, T4 – 75% NPK + FYM + Azotobacter, T5 – 75% NPK + FYM + PSB + Azotobacter, T6 – 50% NPK + FYM + PSB, T7 – 50% NPK + FYM + Azotobacter, T8 – 50% NPK + FYM + PSB + Azotobacter. The seed of okra cv. VRO-6 were sown in plots of 3.0 x 1.5 meters at spacing of 30 x 60 cm. Nitrogen was applied at the rate of 125%, 100%, 75% and 50% kg/ha as per recommended dose of fertilizer. As per the treatment, remaining nitrogen was supplied through FYM. A full dose of FYM with PSB and azotobacter was applied at the time of transplanting, while urea was applied in two split doses i.e. half at the time of transplanting and the remaining half dose 30 days after transplanting. Full dose of phosphorus, potash and half dose of nitrogen were applied as basal dose, while remaining nitrogen was applied in split application one month after sowing. Observations such as phonological observation(days to flower bud initiation, days to flower opening, days to fruit initiation, days to fruit maturity) and post harvest observations (numbers of dry fruits per plant, length of dry fruit, diameter of dry fruit, weight of seed per plant, seed yield q/ha, percentage of graded seed) were recorded from 5 random plants of each replication using standard procedures.
Result and discussion
Under phonological observation it was revealed that days required for flower bud initiation as influenced by different treatments of organic manure and bio-fertilizers with reduced doses of RDF were recorded treatment wise. The minimum days (34.47 days) required for flower bud initiation were recorded in treatment T1 which was significantly superior over all other treatments. Treatment T1 required minimum days (36.4 days) for flower opening followed by treatment T2 (36.9 days). Maximum days for flower opening were however, required under treatment T6 (38.4 days). The minimum number of days (37.33 days) required for fruit initiation was under treatment T1 followed by treatment T2 (37.97 days). Treatment T5 recorded minimum days for fruit maturity followed by treatment T1.
The result obtained in post harvest observations showed that Maximum number of dry fruits (17.73), yield of seed per ha (9.7 q/ha), length of dry fruit per plant (16.93cm), diameter of dry fruit (16.8 mm), weight of 100 seed (26.63 g), weight of seed per plant (77.84 g) was found in treatment T5 and showed significant difference along with superior over all other treatments. However, maximum percentage of graded seed (97.85%) was obtained in treatment T8 and it was closely followed by treatment T5 (97.28%). The minimum percentage of graded seed was obtained in treatment T2 (94.6%).
Pattern of increasing plant height, number of leaves per plant, numbers of internodes, length of 2nd internode, germination percentage of seed under the treatment receiving nitrogen through the chemical fertilizers coupled with nitrogen fixation through azotobacter supported by additional use of FYM leads to more growth in plant. The increase in above observations might be due to more availability of nitrogen in soil physically improved by organic manure as present in treatment T5(Bairwa et al., 2009). Maximum diameter of stem (19.27 mm) at the stage of 100 DAS was recorded in treatment T2 – 125% NPK, progress curve of radial expansion of main stem was somewhat linear without much difference in between the treatments. The pattern of increase in the stem diameter apparently shows that more the nitrogen dose more was the diameter of main stem (Ray et al., 2005). It was observed that an increasing application of nitrogen through organic manure, biofertilizer and inorganic manure had increased the number of branches per plant. This might have been due to increased organic manure in combination with azotobacter and PSB which received reduced doses of RDF in treatment T8 (Tripathy and Maity, 2009).
Early initiation of first flower bud, flower opening and fruit initiation from sowing might be due to the reason that appropriate balance in the levels of nitrogen and phosphorus maintained through inorganic fertilizers helps to induce earliness in flowering and this effect was due to maximum and beneficial action of nitrogen along with phosphorus and potash which was observed in treatment T1 (Ranjan and Choudhary, 2006).Early maturity from sowing might be due to the reason that appropriate balance in the levels of nitrogen and phosphorus maintained through the application of Azotobacter, PSB and FYM helps early maturity and this effect was due to maximum and beneficial action of organic and inorganic fertilizers received by plant from treatment T5 (Singh et al., 2004).
Plants from the treatment plots applied with 75% NPK + FYM + PSB 2 kg ha-1 + Azotobacter 2 kg ha-1 had produced significantly more numbers of dry fruits per plant, length of dry fruit, diameter of dry fruit, weight of seed per plant and seed yield. This might be due to supply of balance nutrients with nitrogen and improving the P2O5 availability through PSB which causes both boosting of vegetative growth and yield characters of plant (Tripathy et al., 2004). The influence of nutrient on percentage of graded seed was increased in the treatments acquiring more organic manure with biofertilizer which increase nitrogen intake capacity of plant observed in treatment T8 (Tripathi and Maity, 2009).
Conclusion
The phonological data was found to be minimum with the application of 100 % NPK, whereas days required for fruit maturity were recorded minimum with the application of 75% NPK + FYM + PSB 2 kg ha-1+ Azotobacter 2 kg ha-1. The seed yield, dry fruit per plant, length of dry fruit, diameter of dry fruit, 1000 seed weight, weight of seed per plant as harvested were maximum from the plots which were applied with 75% NPK + FYM + PSB 2 kg ha-1+ Azotobacter 2 kg ha-1. However, the maximum percentage of graded seed was obtained with the application of 50% NPK + FYM + Azotobacter 2 kg ha-1+ PSB 2 kg ha-1.
Acknowledgement
Experimental facilities and assistance provided by collage of agriculture, Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Gwalior for conducting the research is duly acknowledged.
References
Bairwa, H.L., Mahawer,L.N., Shukla,A.K., Kaushik,R.A., Mathur,S.R. 2009. Response of integrated nutrient management on growth, yield and quality of okra. Indian J. Agril. Sci.,79 (5): 381-384
Ranjan, A. and Chaudhary, V.2006. Effect of integrated nutrient management on growth and yield of okra. J. of Applied Biology, 16 (1/2): 11-13
Ray, R., Patra,S.K., Ghosh,K.K., Shahoo,S.K.2005. Integrated nutrient management in okra in a river basin. Indian J. Hort,.62 (3): 260-264
Singh, T.R., Singh, S.,Singh,S.K., Singh,M.P., Srivastava,B.K.2004. Effect of integrated nutrient management on crop nutrient uptake and yield under okra-pea-tomato cropping system in a mollisol. Indian J. Hort.,61 (4): 312-314
Tripathy, P. and Maity,T.K. 2009. Impact of Integrated nutrient management on fruit quality and yield of okra hybrids. Crop Research Hisar, 37 (1/3): 101-106
Tripathy, P., Maity,T.K., Patnaik,H.P.2008. Field reaction of open pollinated okra varieties to major pest under integrated nutrient management system. Indian J. Entomology, 70(3):250-254
Table 1:
Tr. No. / Treatments / DFBI / DFO / DFI / DFMT1 / 100% NPK / 34.47 / 36.4 / 37.33 / 88.37
T2 / 125% NPK / 34.73 / 36.9 / 37.97 / 89.37
T3 / 75% NPK + FYM + PSB / 35.7 / 37.4 / 38.33 / 88.7
T4 / 75% NPK + FYM + Azotobacter / 35.43 / 37.4 / 38.6 / 88.4
T5 / 75% NPK + FYM + PSB + Azotobacter / 35.17 / 37.2 / 38.2 / 87.27
T6 / 50% + FYM + PSB / 36.23 / 38.4 / 39.4 / 88.77
T7 / 50% NPK + FYM + Azotobacter / 35.37 / 38.2 / 39.1 / 89.97
T8 / 50% NPK + FYM + PSB + Azotobacter / 35.97 / 38 / 39.1 / 88.23
CD (5%) / 0.537 / 0.58 / 0.427 / NS
DFBI: Days to flower bud initiation, DFO: Days for flower opening, DFI: Days for fruit initiation, DFM: Days to fruit maturity, NS: Non significant
Table 2:
Tr. No. / Treatments / DFP / LDF / FD / 100 SW / SWP / GSP / SYT1 / 100% NPK / 17.63 / 16.37 / 16.66 / 26.20 / 71.11 / 95.22 / 9.18
T2 / 125% NPK / 17.23 / 16.37 / 16.66 / 26.17 / 69.18 / 94.6 / 8.81
T3 / 75% NPK + FYM + PSB / 16.73 / 16.27 / 16.8 / 26.37 / 54.16 / 95.23 / 6.74
T4 / 75% NPK + FYM + Azotobacter / 16.67 / 16.53 / 16.53 / 25.73 / 54.76 / 96.85 / 6.81
T5 / 75% NPK + FYM + PSB + Azotobacter / 17.73 / 16.93 / 16.83 / 26.63 / 77.84 / 97.28 / 9.70
T6 / 50% + FYM + PSB / 15.83 / 15.7 / 16.36 / 25.87 / 49.69 / 95.98 / 5.92
T7 / 50% NPK + FYM + Azotobacter / 15.93 / 16.07 / 16.53 / 25.87 / 50.9 / 96 / 5.96
T8 / 50% NPK + FYM + PSB + Azotobacter / 16.47 / 16.13 / 16.53 / 26.02 / 51.94 / 97.85 / 6.07
CD (5%) / 0.445 / 0.479 / NS / 0.346 / 0.683 / NS / 0.044
DFP: Dry fruits per plant, LDF: Length of dry fruit (cm), 100 seed weight (g), SWP: Seed weight per plant (g), Fruit diameter (mm), GSP: Graded seed percentage (%), SY: Seed yield (q/ha)