Effect of soil amendments on texture, porosity of soil and chlorophyll content in maize

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at college farm, college of agriculture, Rajendranagar with Maize variety 900-M-GOLD during rabi, 2014-15 in Randomised Block Design (RBD) with six treatments replicated four times. The soil was sandy loam in texture. Treatments consist of T1-vermicompost @ 5 t ha-1,T2-FYM @ 10 t ha-1, T3-tanksilt @ 50 t ha-1, T4- biochar @10 t ha-1,T5- control (without any fertilizer) and T6- RDF (NPK-200, 60, 50 kg ha-1). RDF is commonly applied from treatment T1 to T4. With the application of FYM, vermicompost, tanksilt and biochar there is no change in the textural class, but clay content of soil increased by 2% with the application of tanksilt. The application of tanksilt, vermicompost and FYM significantly increased the porosity compared to the control. Application of amendments increased the SPAD reading in the order of tanksilt > vermicompost > biochar > FYM > RDF >control. The application of tanksilt, vermicompost, biochar, FYM and RDF significantly increased the SPAD meter reading compared to the control