Effect of organic manures on growth and yield of cashew cv. VENGURLA-4 under Konkan region of Maharashtra

Abstract

An experiment on the effect of organic manures on growth and yield of cashew cv. VENGURLA- 4 under Konkan region of Maharashtra was conducted under AICRP-Cashew programme during 2011-12 to 2014-15 at Regional Fruit Research Station, Vegurle-416 516, dist. Sindhudurg (M.S.). Uniform eight months old grafts of cashew (V-4) were planted at 7m x 7m during 2008. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with three replications and eight treatments (T 1 -100 % N as FYM, T 1 + biofertilizers consortium (BCF) (200g/tree), T 3 - 50% N as FYM + BCF (200g/tree) + rock phosphate, T 4 - 100% N as vermicompost + BCF (200g/tree), T 5 - recycling of organic residue with the addition of 20 per cent cow dung slurry (20% weight of organic residue as cow dung slurry), T 6 - In situ green manuring/green leaf manuring to meet 100% (retain litter + planting cowpea) T 7 - 25% N as FYM + recycling of organic residues + In situ green manuring/green leaf manuring + BCF (200g/tree) and T 8 - control- recommended dose of fertilizer + 10 kg FYM). All the observations were recorded at appropriate stages. Similarly uniform package of practices were simultaneously followed. The data were statically analyzed as per procedure. Among the different organic manures tested, application of 50% N as FYM + BCF (200g/tree) + rock phosphate (T 3 ) recorded maximum number of panicles/m 2 (17.53/m 2 ) followed by T 8 - control i.e. recommended dose of fertilizer + 10 kg FYM (16.58/m 2 ) and T 6 - In situ green manuring/green leaf manuring to meet 100% (retain litter + planting cowpea) (16.32/m 2 ). While, application of recommended dose of fertilizer + 10 kg FYM (T 8 - control) recorded significantly the maximum mean pooled yield of 4.8 kg/tree and superior over the rest of the treatments.