Bio solids influence on spinach leaf quality grown in Peri Urban areas

Abstract

In order to offset the conflicting information regarding biosolids on the public domain the present study has been carried out at College of Agriculture farm, PJTSAU, Rajendranagar. The pot culture study entitled “Biosolids Influence on Spinach Leaf Quality Grown in Peri Urban Areas “was conducted during kharif, 2014 at College of Agriculture, PJTSAU, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad. The experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with four replications. There were five treatments of biosolids application rate comprising T1 (3 t ha-1), T2 (4t ha-1), T3 (5 t ha-1) T4-Control (Spinach) and T5-Control (Fenugreek). Applicaion of 5 t ha-1 of biosolids to Spinach increased the leaf yield by per cent as compared with 4 t ha-1 and 3 t ha -1 due to more availability of NPK and Zinc. Similarly, maximum chlorophyll content in leaf was recorded in treatment with 5 tonns/ha of biosolids to spinach (49.57 SPAD units). Uptake of major nutrients (NPK) and micronutrient (Zn) was found to be highest in 5 t ha-1 of biosolids. Among heavy metals, though uptake of Cd, was more followed by Ni and Co, found to be with in the maximum permissible limits as per WHO standards (2007) [21]. The transfer factor values for Cd were found to be more as compared with Ni and Co indicating that spinach has higher affinity towards Cd absorption.