Influence of organic sources and organic formulations on the biological properties of soil in soybean-onion cropping sequence

Abstract

The field experiment conducted at Instructional Farm, Department of Agronomy, Post Graduate Institute, Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri, Dist. Ahmednagar, Maharashtra (India) during the year 2019-20 and 2020-21 to evaluate the effect of organic sources and organic formulations on the biological properties of soil in soybean-onion cropping sequence. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications. There were 16 treatment combinations formed with four main plot treatments of organic sources viz., S0 - Control,S1 - FYM @ 5 t ha-1, S2 - vermicompost @ 2.5 t ha-1, S3 - FYM @ 2.5 t ha-1 + vermicompost @ 1.25 t ha-1 and four subplot treatments of organic formulations viz., F0 -Control, F1 - jeevamrut @ 500 lit ha-1, F2 - EM solution @ 100 lit ha-1, F3 - jeevamrut @ 250 lit ha-1 + @ 50 lit ha-1 EM solution. The results showed that the application of FYM @ 2.5 t ha-1 + vermicompost @ 1.25 t ha-1 15 days before sowing/transplanting recorded significantly maximum soil microbial population of soil viz., bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes than rest of the organic source treatments during both the years of experiment. While the application of organic formulation jeevamrut @ 500 lit ha-1 twice through irrigation at 30 and 60 DAS/DAT recorded significantly maximum soil microbial population of soil viz., bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes than rest of the organic formulation treatments during both the years of experiment.