Fortified Organic Manure and NPK Fertilizer Levels: Influence on Soil Properties, Yield and Micronutrients Biofortification of Brinjal in Coastal Soil

Abstract

Coastal saline soils are nutrient impoverished where nutrients are in starved state, thus applying increased rate of NPK along with micronutrients fortified organics would greatly improve the soil fertility as well as nutritional quality and yield of vegetable crops. Therefore, we examined the effect of micronutrients fortified organics and NPK levels on the soil properties, yield and quality of brinjal in coastal saline soil. A field experiment was conducted at Ponnanthittu coastal village, near Chidambaram, Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu during August – December 2022 in sandy saline soil (EC-1.58 dSm-1; pH-8.54) nature with low organic carbon (2.31 g kg-1), available NPK of 135.56, 9.45 and 157.30 kg ha-1 and the available zinc (0.69 mg kg-1) and iron content (3.87 mg kg-1). The treatments adopted in a Factorial Randomized Block Design (FRBD) with three replications and different levels of NPK viz., control, 100, 125 and 150% recommended levels as factor A and different micronutrients fortified organics viz., 100% Zn Fortified Composted Coir pith (Zn FCCP) @ 6.25 t ha-1), 100% Fe Fortified Composted Coir pith (Fe FCCP) @ 6.25 t ha-1) and 100% Zn + Fe Fortified Composted Coir pith (Zn + Fe FCCP) @ 6.25 t ha-1 as factor B were studied with brinjal. Study results indicated that application of 125 % NPK along with Zn + Fe fortified composted coir pith (Zn + Fe FCCP) was significantly increased the availability of major and micro nutrient status, nutritional quality and yield of brinjal over other treatments in coastal saline sandy soil.