Breaking Dormancy in Elephant Foot Yam [Amorphophallus paeoniifolius (Dennst.) Nicolson] Using Organic and Inorganic Amendments

Abstract

The present study was conducted at Instructional Farm, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, from December 2021 – February 2022, to assess the effectiveness of the treatments [cow dung, Trichoderma, Pink Pigmented Facultative Methylotrophs (PPFM) isolate, potassium nitrate and gibberellic acid (GA3)] in enhancing the early sprouting in Amorphophallus. Among the various tuber crops, amorphophallus is found exhibit a dormancy for about three to five months, which is a significant agricultural challenge. Hence the study was to promote the early sprouting of the corms using various organic and inorganic amendments and the variation was studied in terms of sprouting percentage, number of days taken for sprout initiation and 50 per cent sprouting, shoot and root length and vigour index. The experiment comprised of nine treatments viz. T1: Cow dung slurry @ 2.5 kg 5 L-1 , T2 : Trichoderma enriched FYM (5g kg corm-1), T3 : T1 + PPFM 38 @ 2 %, T4 : T1 + PPFM 38 @ 5 %, T5 : T1 + PPFM 38 @ 2 % soil drench, T6 : T1 + PPFM 38 @ 5 % soil drench, T7 : 1 % potassium nitrate spray on corms, T8 : GA3 @ 200 mg kg-1 spray on corms, T9 : Control),  replicated thrice. The results revealed that, the sprouting percentage, number of days to sprout initiation and 50 percent sprouting were significantly lower for the treatment T1 (Cow dung slurry @ 2.5 kg 5 L-1). The sprout length (3.93 cm) and seedling vigour index II (52839.0) was found to significantly higher on treating the corms with cow dung slurry. However, the treatment T2: Trichoderma enriched FYM (5g kg corm-1) has resulted in an increased root length (24.50 cm) and seedling vigour index I when compared with the other treatments. For all the above-mentioned parameters the control treatment was found to be the least beneficial. The study revealed that the the treatment of cow dung slurry @ 2.5 kg 5 L -1 with the amorphophallus corms was found to effectively break the dormancy and enhance the emergence in amorphophallus.