Effect of organic source of nutrients and biofertilizers on growth, yield and quality of ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.)

Abstract

Ginger is heavy feeder and exhaustive crop requires large quantity of manures and fertilizers. By considering today’s demands towards organic an experiment was conducted at the Instructional farm of Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari, Cooch Behar, West Bengal during 2008-09 and 2009-10 to evaluate the effect of organic source of nutrients and biofertilizers on growth, yield and quality of ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.). The experiment was laid out in randomized Block design with five replications. The treatments were taken for two different levels of FYM, vermicompost, green leaf manure, rock phosphate, wood ash, Azospirillum and PSB. Data on different growth and yield parameter showed significant differences among the different treatments. The results revealed that application of green leaf manure (from Glyricidia maculata) @ 12t/ha along with rock phosphate @ 0.2 t/ha, wood ash @ 1 t/ha, Azospirillum @ 5kg/ha + PSB @ 5kg/ha (T5) gave the significantly highest fresh (20.68 t/ha) and dry yield (4.52 t/ha) followed by vermicompost 5 t/ha along with Azospirillum @ 5kg/ha + PSB @ 5kg/ha (T4) (18.59 t/ha and 4.06 t/ha, respectively). Control treatment i.e. recommended dose of fertilizers @ 80:80:120 kg N, P2O5 and K2O/ ha along farm yard manure @ 15t/ha (T6) recorded a fresh yield of 16.67 t/ha and 3.43 t/ha of dry yield. The lowest fresh yield of 13.09 t/ha and dry yield (2.94 t/ha) was recorded in the treatment of sole application of FYM @ 15 t/ha (T1). Somewhat higher dry recovery percentage was recorded in case of all the organic treatments compared to control treatment (T6). Maximum dry recovery (22.43%) and oleoresin content (4.37%) was recorded in the treatment of sole application of FYM @ 15 t/ha (T1).