Abstract
The study was carried out during 2009 to 2010 on 8 years old pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) trees cv.‘Kandhari Kabuli’ to investigate the conjoint efficiency of bio-organics used along with chemical fertilizers on nutrient availability and physico-chemical and biological properties of soil. Conjoint application of bio-fertilizers 80 g/tree, vermicompost 20 kg/tree, FYM 20 kg/tree, green manure (GM) sunnhemp (Crotalaria juncea L.) and recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF) of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (NPK), resulted in significantly maximum porosity (60.27%), water holding capacity (WHC) (60.31%), bulk density (0.97%), particle density (2.25%), organic carbon (1.90%), soil pH (6.89), soil N (405.56%), P (22.02%), K (419.00%), Iron (Fe) (66.92 ppm), Maganese (Mn) (61.95 ppm), Zinc (Zn) (2.33 ppm) and Cupper (Cu) (3.25 ppm). The microbial biomass pool in terms of Pseudomonassp, soil fungi, Azotobacter chroococcum, Actinomycetes and Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi increased by 385.57, 60.26, 134.19, 168.02 and 39.87%, respectively over the control. Key words: Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.), biofertilisers, farm yard manure (FYM), vermicompost, green manuring.
Highlights
Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal spores present in the soil were recorded through wet sieving and decanting method (Gerdemann and Nicolson, 1963) and the spore count was done according to most probable number method described by Porter (1979)
Organic manure and mineral fertilizers resulted from high soil organic carbon, more pore space and better soil aggregation. These findings are in line with those of Kannan et al (2005) who reported that, decrease in bulk density, increase in porosity and better water holding capacity (WHC) of soil were mainly due to the action of gum compounds, polysaccharides and fulvic acid compounds of organic matter on the soil structure and an increased microbial and enzymatic activities accelerated by vermicompost application (Ghuman and Sur, 2006)
Marathe et al (2009) reported that, significant increase in available Fe, Zn, Mn and Cu were observed with organic manure especially Vermicompost, either alone or in combination with inorganic or green manure (GM) (Crotalaria juncea L.) or bio-fertilizers (Azotobacter + PSB)
Summary
The study was carried out during 2009 to 2010 on 8 years old pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) trees cv.‘Kandhari Kabuli’ to investigate the conjoint efficiency of bio-organics used along with chemical fertilizers on nutrient availability and physico-chemical and biological properties of soil. Conjoint application of bio-fertilizers 80 g/tree, vermicompost 20 kg/tree, FYM 20 kg/tree, green manure (GM) sunnhemp (Crotalaria juncea L.) and recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF) of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (NPK), resulted in significantly maximum porosity (60.27%), water holding capacity (WHC) (60.31%), bulk density (0.97%), particle density (2.25%), organic carbon (1.90%), soil pH (6.89), soil N (405.56%), P (22.02%), K (419.00%), Iron (Fe) (66.92 ppm), Maganese (Mn) (61.95 ppm), Zinc (Zn) (2.33 ppm) and Cupper (Cu) (3.25 ppm).
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