Response of Nutripellet placement on Marigold yield and its components

Abstract

Nutripellet Pack has 3 parts viz., top bioinoculant mixture, central manure pellet and bottom fertilizer pellet. On the top, bioinoculants mixture responsible for N2 fixation, P and Zn solubilization and biocontrol agents are placed as a powder or granules. Highly decomposed manure having C:N ratio below 30:1 enriched with P, micronutrients and pesticide/ fungicide is pelleted with pelleting device and placed at the centre. At the bottom, a mixture of NPK fertilizers made in pellet form and encapsulated in polymer paper (bio degradable) pouch is placed. The nutrients in fertilizer pellet are in amount equal to the yield target of the crop. To study the Nutripellet (Nutripellet is a packet in tubular form having several inputs viz., fertilizers, manures; for preparing manure pellet, enriched vermicompost was used, fungicide and bioinoculants) application of nutrients on the yield of marigold (Tagetes erecta L.), a field experiment was conducted with following treatments viz., T1, Control; T2 and T3, 100 and 75% NPK surface/broadcast application of fertiliser, T4 and T5, 100 and 75% NPK- Nutripellet (Diammonium phosphate (DAP) as P source) ;T6 and T7, 100 and 75% NPK- Nutripellet (Single super phosphate (SSP) as P source). The results of the experiment indicated the 100% NPK Nutripellet recorded the highest flower yield of 45.5 t ha-1 which was 98.8% higher than surface broadcast. On an average, Nutripellet with DAP recorded flower weight, petal-calyx ratio, and number of petals per flower. The advantages of root zone placement of Nutripellet were one time placement at transplanting, no top dressing of fertilizers and slow release of nutrients expected throughout the crop period. Key words: Deep placement, fertilizer, flower yield.