Enhancing Soil Characteristics and Physiological Parameters of Soil Cultivated with Marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) cv. Calcutta Orange Using Pusa Hydrogel

Abstract

The issue of water management has assumed paramount importance and occupied the centre stage of politico-economic debates in the world. Marigold is a versatile flowering plant that belongs to the Asteraceae family with numerous uses in the floriculture industry, which can be grown in varied agroclimatic conditions, hence used for the present study. The study aimed to understand the effect of different regimes of irrigation, soil characteristics and physiological parameters of soil during the cultivation of Marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) cv. Calcutta orange. The study was conducted at the College of Horticulture, Bagalkot, University of Horticultural Sciences, Bagalkot, Karnataka, India. Healthy seedlings of the marigold cultivar “Culcutta Orange” were used for the experiment, collected from Kisan Nursery, Arabhavi. The recorded observations included soil parameters, physiological parameters, Crop growth rate, Relative Growth Rate, and Net Assimilation Rate.  The results revealed significantly higher moisture content in marigold grown field soil irrigated with 100 per cent Cumulative Pan Evaporation (CPE) (20.72, 17.50 and 12.24 per cent, respectively) at 30, 60 and 90 Days After Transplanting (DAT). High pH (8.03) and bulk density (1.48 g/cm3) were observed at 80 (I2) and 60 (I3) per cent CPE, respectively.  Relative water content was significantly highest in I2: 80 per cent CPE (75.51 and 63.75 per cent, respectively) at 45 and 75 DAT. Maximum values of Crop Growth Rate (CGR) (1.79 g m-2 day-1), Relative Growth Rate (RGR) (0.58 g g-1day-1 × 102) and NAR (0.48 g m-2 day-1) were obtained in the irrigation schedule at 80 per cent CPE. Relative water content of the plant was significantly highest (82.07 and 71.47 per cent, respectively) in 80 per cent CPE with 5.25 kg/ha hydrogel (I2H4) at 45 and 75 DAT. The maximum value of CGR (2.20 g m-2 day-1) was obtained in the irrigation schedule at 80 per cent CPE with 5.25 kg/ha hydrogel (I2H4). Relative growth rate (RGR) and net assimilation rate (NAR) were found to be non-significant with respect to the treatment combination of different levels of irrigation and hydrogel.