Effect of fertilizers on quality seedling production in Swietenia macrophylla King

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to know the influence of different blends of chemical fertilizers, biofertilizers and organic fertilizers on quality seedling production in Swietenia macrophylla King by using seedlings (> 21 cm height at 51 DAS) in polybags (15 x 25 cm2) filled with standard soil mixture 3:1 (Soil: FYM) with three levels of nitrogen (0, 1 and 2g N seedling-1) as Urea, three levels of phosphorus (0,1 and 2 g P2O5 seedling-1) as Single Super Phosphate and three levels of potassium (0, 1 and 2 g of K2O seedling-1) as Muriate of Potash along with vermicompost (50 g) and bio-fertilizers Viz., Azophos (5g) and VAM (5g) seedling-1. There were twelve treatments (mixture of different fertilizers in polybag) arranged in a completely randomised design with three replications @ 30 polythene bags per treatment per replication. The results show that at 120 DAT the treatment T9 (the application of 1g of each NPK with vermicompost (50 g) and Azophos (5 g) seedling-1) performed significantly better in visual parameters i.e. shoot length (53.47 cm), root length (39.71 cm), collar diameter (3.63 mm), leaf area (cm2) and number of leaflets (27.1 No’s), quality indices i.e. volume index (7.03cm3), quality index (0.2661) and sturdiness quotient (14.75) as well as bio chemical parameters i.e. chlorophyll a content (1.679mg g-1), Chlorophyll b content (1.160 mg g-1) and total chlorophyll content (3.306 mg g-1). Hence, the optimal mixture of nutrients 1g of each NPK with vermicompost (50 g) and Azophos (5 g) seedling-1 is ideal for production of quality seedlings with reduced nursery duration.