Yield and quality of African marigold as influenced by biofertilizers and nitrogen levels

Abstract

An experiment to study the response of biofertilizers and nitrogen levels on yield and quality in African marigold was carried out during kharif season of the year 2017-18 at Research Farm, Horticulture Section, College of Agriculture, Nagpur. A field experiment comprised of two factors i.e. factor A and factor B. Factor A consist of 3 levels of biofertilizers (N0 - Control, N1 - Azotobacter and N2 - Azospirillum) and factor B consist of 5 levels of nitrogen (N0 - Control, N1 - 50 kg N ha-1, N2 - 75 kg N ha-1, N3 - 100 kg N ha-1 and N4 - 125 kg N ha-1) with fifteen treatment combinations replicated thrice in a Factorial Randomized Block Design. The flower yield characters like flower yield plant-1, flower yield plot-1 and flower yield ha-1 were recorded maximum with an individual application of B1 (Azotobacter) and N3 (100 kg N ha-1). Significantly maximum flower yield plant-1, flower yield plot-1 and flower yield ha-1 were observed in the treatment combination of B1N3 (Azotobacter and 100 kg N ha-1). Whereas, the quality parameters like weight of flower, flower diameter, flower disc diameter and number of petals flower-1 were recorded maximum with an individual application of B1 (Azotobacter) and N3 (100 kg N ha-1). Significantly maximum weight of flower and flower diameter were observed in the treatment combination of B1N3 (Azotobacter and 100 kg N ha-1). The interaction effect of biofertilizers and nitrogen levels with respect to quality parameters i.e. flower disc diameter and number of petals per flower were found non-significant in the treatment combination of B1N3 (Azotobacter and 100 kg N ha-1).