Photosynthetic Activity, Nutrient Concentration, Yield and Soil Properties Altered by Long Term INM Practices of Knol-khol (Brassica oleracea var. gongylodes L.) under Acidic Inceptisols

Abstract

A long-term field experiment was started in the campus of College of Agriculture, OUAT, Bhubaneswar, Odisha since kharif 2010 in a randomized block design with 08 treatments and three replications under a cereal-vegetable-pulse cropping system. Different observations on plant and soil parameters were taken during kharif 2018 to evaluate the performance of the test crop towards different package and practices followed. The test crop was Knol-khol, the 25th crop in the sequence. The treatments were T1: Control, T2: Soil Test Dose (STD), T3: STD + Farm Yard Manure (F), T4: STD + Vermicompost (VC), T5: STD + F + Biofertilizers (BFs), T6: STD + VC + BFs, T7: STD + F + L + BFs, and T8: STD + VC + L + BFs which consisted of different combinations of inorganic fertilizers, organic manures (FYM and vermicompost), ameliorant (lime) and biofertilizers. Knol-khol crop was grown in the experimental plot with different organic and inorganic fertilizers as per the treatment plans. Leaf samples from different treatments were collected at 45 days after planting (DAP). The economic yield was highest (3.44 t ha-1) in the treatment supplied with inorganic and organic source of nutrient with lime (T7) which was at par with T8 (3.34 t ha-1) whereas significantly higher than rest other treatments and lowest was obtained in STD (1.45 t ha-1).  The highest values 2.68%, 1.11mg g-1 of fresh leaves and 46.34 were recorded for leaf nitrogen content, chlorophyll content and SPAD value respectively were recorded with treatment T7 whereas lowest value of 1.91%, 0.54 mg g-1 of fresh of leaves and 21.81 were recorded for leaf nitrogen content, chlorophyll content and SPAD value respectively with T1. However, the soil properties after harvest of the crop were found to be better with T8 where vermicompost was integrated with inorganic fertilizer and lime.