Assessing the effect of application of organic manures and grapevine pruned biomass on Thompson Seedless

Abstract

Our soil continues to grapple with a number of familiar challenges like soil infertility, unfavourable soil conditions, and declining soil health as well as quality. These issues are caused by the ongoing crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, and excessive fertilizer usage alone in intensive cropping. Deterioration of soil health can be alleviated by application of organic fertilizers. With this background, the current experiment was conducted during 2013- 2016 to evaluate the effect of different organic sources viz. farm yard manure (FYM), green manure, press mud compost and grapevine pruning residue on Thompson Seedless and soil organic carbon content. Results indicated that maximum yield of 19.50 t/ha was obtained in T3 (press mud @15ton/ha). The increase in yield was +10.36% and +4.62% over T1 (only Fertigation schedule) and T2 (FYM), respectively. Maximum petiole potassium concentration (1.63%) was recorded in T3 at fruit bud differentiation stage. The soil organic carbon was highest in T4 (FYM @7.5 ton/ha and Press mud @ 7.5 ton/ha) among all the treatments. The increase was +5.6%, +66.66% and +63.56% over T1 in first, second and third year respectively. The gross returns (Rs. 319945/-), net profit (Rs. 121170/-) as well as cost benefit ratio (0.61) was maximum in case of press mud among all the organic sources. On the basis of obtained results, it can be concluded that use of press mud compost or press mud and FYM may be recommended as an organic fertilizer to improve yield and petiole nutrient content of Thompson Seedless as well as soil organic carbon content.