MANAGEMENT OF CLAY SOILS OF SOUTH GUJARAT FOR IMPROVING YIELD AND QUALITY OF ONION (Allium cepa L.)
KrishiKosh
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Title |
MANAGEMENT OF CLAY SOILS OF SOUTH GUJARAT FOR IMPROVING YIELD AND QUALITY OF ONION (Allium cepa L.)
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Creator |
DODAKE, SURESH B.
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Contributor |
PATIL, R.G.
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Subject |
onions, land resources, planting, soil conditioners, yields, gypsum, storage, nutrients, biological development, farmyard manure
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Description |
The present study was carried out in three parts viz., survey, incubation and field experiment. In order to obtain views of onion growers regarding cultural practices followed by them a survey was conducted. Simultaneously an incubation study was under taken for evaluating the effect of integrated nutrient management (INM) in presence and absence of soil conditioner (gypsum) on periodical nutrient availability under laboratory condition. Similarly, field experiment with 12 treatment combinations was carried out at Soil and Water Management Farm, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari during rabi season of 2003-04 for assessing the effect of 2 land configuration (flat bed and raised bed), 2 levels of soil conditioner (gypsum o t/ha and 6t/ha) and 3 INM treatments : F1= recommended dose (RD) through fertilize r, F2 = ½ RD + FYM and F3 = ½ RD + press mud (PM) on growth, yield, nutrient uptake, soil properties as well as on losses during storage and quality parameters of onion. The survey data indicated that most of the farmers (90%) are planting onion on flat bed and did not apply gypsum (84%) as soil conditioner. Though, majority of the farmers are adopting integrated nutrient management system, yet the rate of application of organics was found to be very low. The results of an incubation study indicated that in all the treatments involving fertilizer or fertilizer + organics and/or gypsum registered lower pH than absolute control. In case of soil salinity, significantly higher EC values were observed with treatments receiving gypsum or gypsum + organics and/or inorganic fertilizers. The organic carbon showed declining trend with increase in period of incubation. The treatments receiving ½ RD + either FYM or PM in presence or absence of gypsum recorded significantly higher organic carbon content in soil as compared to control. The availability of N, P and K was higher with the treatments receiving RD through fertilizers alone and that of micronutrient availability was more with treatment receiving ½ RD + PM followed by ½ RD + FYM. The values of available N, P, K, S, Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu recorded at the end of incubation were 123.7, 25.08, 216.5, 31.7, 37.5, 53.8, 0.95 and 2.41 mg/kg, respectively, with treatment receiving ½ RD + PM. The corresponding values with control were 100.9, 18.30, 147.8, 5.9, 26.6, 35, 0.57 and 2.20. Better plant height and number of leaves per plant were recorded with raised bed planting than flat bed. An application of gypsum as a soil conditioner favourably influenced the plant height, number of leaves and dry matter production at all the growth stages of onion. Irrespective of treatments, rate of dry matter production by onion was found to be maximum at 40 and 80 DAP. All the beneficial effects of land configuration and soil conditioner were positively reflected on bulb and leaves yields. The raised bed planting increased the bulb yield by 8.5 per cent over flat bed and application of gypsum as soil conditioner @ 6 t/ha improved bulb yield by 10 per cent over no gypsum application. The treatment effects on periodical nutrient content in leaves and bulb were not affected significantly in most of the cases. Based on nutrient uptake pattern, N requirement of onion was found to increase up to grand growth stage (80 DAP) and declined thereafter, while K removal by onion during all the stages was almost equal. The proportion of S uptake at grand growth and harvesting stages was more or less similar but it was less at bulb initiation stage. Almost similar pattern of treatment effect was also observed for Fe uptake by onion at diff erent growth stages, while in case of Zn its requirement was found to be maximum during 80-120 days after planting. Planting of onion on raised bed, application of gypsum and conjunctive use of organics and inorganic fertilizer maintained their superiority in nutrient uptake over respective controls. The TSS and reducing sugar content in onion tended to increase with storage time but non-reducing sugar as well as total sugar showed declining trend. Among the INM treatments, F3 maintained its superiority in all the quality parameters during the whole period of storage over rest of the treatments (F1 and F2). At all the samplings (30, 60, 90 and 120 DAS), physiological loss in weight, sprouting and total losses were significantly lower with F3 than F1, whereas rotting loss was found to be minimum with F2. Use of fertilizer alone resulted in 27 per cent total loss of onion bulb as against 20 to 22 per cent total loss with INM treatments. Raised bed land configuration registered lower EC values than flat bed while application of gypsum increased the soluble salt contents in soil at all the samplings i.e., 40, 80 and 120 DAP. Amending soil with organics viz., FYM or PM along with ½ RD of fertilizer increased the organic C status of soil significantly as compared to RD only. The higher content of available N and P in soil was observed with FYM and PM after harvest of crop. An increase in available Fe content in soil was observed wherein gypsum and organics were applied. Between the two land configurations, raised bed significantly improved the infiltration rate (IR) and water stable aggregates (WSA). Application of soil conditioner also enhanced both IR as well as WSA by 34 and 4 per cent, respectively over its no application. Use of FYM along with ½ RD of NPK fertilizers tended to hasten IR and WSA by 29 and 11 per cent, respectively over use of fertilizer alone. Similarly, the extent of increase in IR and WSA with use of ½ RD + PM was 23 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively over application of fertilizer alone. |
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Date |
2016-03-05T11:13:29Z
2016-03-05T11:13:29Z 2005-12 |
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Type |
Thesis
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Identifier |
http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/64840
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Language |
en
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Format |
application/pdf
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Publisher |
Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari
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