Effect of doses and time of application of Jeevamrit on nutrient uptake and soil health under natural farming system

Abstract

Jeevamrit is a fermented liquid manure which contains huge quantity of microbial load that enhances soil bio-mass upon its application to the soil even at very lesser rate as it acts as a tonic to the soil besides improving soil health. Laboratory studies and field experiment was conducted at organic farm of Department of Organic Agriculture, CSK HPKV, Palampur to evaluate the effect of doses and application time of Jeevamrit on nutrient uptake, microbial population, organic carbon and NPK status of soil. Ten treatments comprising of jeevamrit application @ 5 per cent at 2, 3 & 4 weeks interval (T1, T2 & T3), jeevamrit @ 10 per cent at 2, 3 & 4 weeks interval (T4, T5 & T6), jeevamrit @ 20 per cent at 2, 3 & 4 weeks interval (T7, T8 & T9) and vermicompost @ 10 t/ha + 3 sprays of vermiwash @ 750 l/ha (T10) were randomly allocated and replicated thrice. As per findings, application of jeevamrit @ 20 per cent at 2 weeks interval (T3) recorded higher nitrogen uptake, which was at par with the application of jeevamrit @ 10 per cent at 2 & 3 weeks interval, jeevamrit @ 20 per cent at 3 weeks interval and to the application of vermicompost @ 10 t/ha + 3 sprays of vermiwash @ 750 l/ha (T10). Microbial studies revealed that significantly higher colony forming units (cfu) of bacteria (32.69 × 106), fungi (24.86 × 103) and actinomycetes (6.02 × 102) per gram of soil were recorded in T3, which was at par with T2 (30.68 × 106, 23.18 × 103, 5.56 × 102) & T6(29.34 × 106, 22.33 × 103, 5.55 × 102) cfu/g soil. Whereas, higher soil organic carbon (0.80%) was recorded in check (T10), which was at par with T3 (0.79%), T2 (0.77%) & T6 (0.76%) and higher available NPK (220.8, 36.6 and 200.6 kg/ha, respectively) were recorded in check (T10) after the harvest of crop.