Growth and nutritional characteristics of Phaseolus vulgaris and Jeevamrutha bio-fertilizer-vermicompost system

Abstract

Four alternate treatments namely integrated Jeevamrutha bio-fertilizer-Vermicompost system (T1), Bio-fertilizer system (T2), Vermicompost system (T3) and soil only system (T4) were assessed in terms of the growth, development and nutritional content of Phaseolus vulgaris along with the improvement in soil fertility. A 45 days pot experiment for Phaseolus vulgaris was conducted for the T1–T4 samples. The soil fertility (% N, % P, % K and %OC) improved significantly for T1 (1.86 %, 0.86 %, 0.71 % and 2.1 % respectively) followed by T3. T1 and T2 treatments exhibited maximum carbohydrate (2.7 and 1.7 mg per unit g of fruit), carotenoids (37 and 35 μg/g), soluble protein (0.037 and 0.026 mg/g) and vitamin C (84.2 and 56.4 mg/100 g) content along with %N (1.8 and 1.7 %) and %P (0.18 and 0.15 %). N-fixers and P-solubilizers were higher for T1 (24 × 104 and 28 × 104 cfu/mL) and T3 (16 × 104 and 17 × 104 cfu/mL) cases. Hence, the findings of this work affirm possibility to address precise demands of sustained agriculture.