Influence of Foliar Application of Panchagavya and Fish Extracts and Application of Organic Substances on Yield and Quality of Ash Gourd under Organic Farming

Abstract

Recently, farmers are shifting to organic farming and are interested in the adoption of various plant and animal waste as nutrient sources in organic agriculture to supply the nutrients for getting the expected yield.  Currently, farmers believe that the application of panchagavya and fish extracts play a major role in enhancing the biological efficiency of crop plants.  Hence, a field study was conducted to assess the effect of foliar application of panchagavya, fish extracts and organic substances on yield and quality of ash gourd under organic farming during Kharif,   2020 at Murungai village in Tiruchirappalli district of Tamil Nadu. The results of the study indicated that foliar application of Panchgavya @ 3%, and fish extracts @ 0.5% along with soil application of FYM @25 t/ha, Groundnut cake @ 100 kg/ha and Neem cake @ 200kg/ha recorded significantly higher fruit yield (25.55 t/ha) compared to other treatments. Further, nutrient contents of ash gourd were studied under various foliar applications of organics and the fruit pulp was used for analysis. The quality parameters viz., protein content of fruit (0.54 g/100 g), Fat (0.13 g/100 g), carbohydrate (2.44 g/100 g), Fibre (1.14g/100 g), Zinc (0.14mg/100 g), Iron  (0.44 mg/100 g) recorded were significantly higher with the application of Panchagavya, fish extract and oil cake application. Therefore, it is found that foliar application of Panchgavya @ 3%, and Fish extracts @ 0.5% along with FYM (25 t/ha), Groundnut cake (100 kg/ha) and Neem cake (200 kg/ha) could be used for getting more yield under organic farming system.