Saturday, 15 July 2006
165-1

Yield and Quality of Bhendi (Abelmoschus esculentus) as Influenced by Micronutrients in Comparison with Microfood with/without Organics and Bio-Fertilizers in an Inceptisol.

Selvi Duraisamy, Dept of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Tamil Nadu Agricultural Univ, Lawley Road, Coimbatore, 641 003, India, THIYAGESHWARI SUBRAMANIAN, Dept of Soil Scienceand Agricultural Chemistry, TNAU, Lawley Road, Coimbatore, 641 003, India, and RAJKANNAN BELLIE, Dept of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, TNAU, Lawley Road, Coimbatore, 641 003, India.

Bhendi is one of the important vegetable crops in India grown throughout the year except in extreme winter and cold regions. The micronutrients are reported to have a significant effect on yield and quality of vegetables. As the work on the application of micronutrients in combination with organics and biofertilizer on Bhendi is meager, the present investigation was undertaken to find out the effect of integrated micronutrient management in a farmer's holding at Coimbatore with var. pusa kranti. The experimental soil was Inceptisol (Vertic Ustropept) with a pH - 8.3 , salinity - 0.39 dSm-1, deficient in DTPA-Zn and Fe. The treatments comprised of control, NPK, two sources of micronutrients (straight - MNS namely ZnSO4 and FeSO4; Microfood – MF) and two modes (soil and foliar) of their application with composted coirpith (CCP) @ 25.0 t ha-1 and Azospirillum @ 2 kg ha-1. Each treatment was replicated thrice in a Randomized Block Design.The fruits were harvested and the quality parameters namely ascorbic acid, total carbohydrate, protein and crude fiber were analyzed. Application of foliar Microfood , foliar straight micronutrients, MF (soil applied) and MNS (soil applied) along with optimal NPK increased the fruit yield to the tune of 29.0, 28.0, 26.2 and 24.6 per cent respectively over NPK alone. Both soil and foliar application of either MF / MNS with integration of composted coir pith @ 25 t ha-1 and Azospirillum @ 2 kg ha-1 recorded higher bhendi fruit yields than that of individual application.The foliar applied MF / MNS recorded higher values of total carbohydrate, protein and the combined application of micronutrients with CCP / CCP + Azo recorded the highest ascorbic acid content of bhendi fruits. Application of organics c! ombined with inorganics has lowered the crude fiber content thereby enhancing the palatability, especially with more organic N.


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