Effects of different bulky organic manures on yield and quality of cabbage
Mainu Ram Salam
A field experiment was conducted during Rabi 2013-14 at the experimental farm of IRTDM faculty centre of Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University, Ranchi to observe the effects of different bulky organic manures on yield and quality of cabbage. The experiment comprises of the application of different bulky organic manures that have been reported beneficial and valuable effect on growth and yield of cabbage as well as the soil chemical properties. The treatments used for the study were: T1: Cowdung (well decomposed); T2: Vermicompost; T3: Poultry Manure; T4: ½ Cow Dung + ½ Vermicompost; T5: ½ Vermicompost + ½ Poultry Manure; T6: ½ Cowdung + ½ Poultry Manure; T7: 1/3 Cowdung+ 1/3 Poultry Manure + 1/3 Vermicompost; and T8: Control (without any manure). All the growth parameters (head length, head diameter, number of non-wrapper leaves and head weight) and quality parameters (total sugar, reducing sugar, TSS and ascorbic acid) of cabbage as well as the soil chemical properties of soil were positively influenced by bulky organic manures. The performance of cabbage was poor and not up to the required mark in the case of the treatment where no organic input was applied; as a consequence poor growth and quality and lower yield was obtained from the control treatment. Cow dung, poultry manure, vermicompost and their different proportions applied @ 500g per plant (as basal dose: one week before transplanting) followed by 200g/plant (as split dose: 45 days after transplanting) showed a significant increase in the growth rate of cabbage. Supplementation of organic sources of manures resulted in higher yield (57.14 t/ha) in T6 as well as quality of cabbage with higher ascorbic acid (108.0 mg/100 g) in T4, total sugar content (3.67%) inT1, reducing sugar content (2.44%) in T5 and TSS content (5.630 Brix) in T4 as compared to the control treatment (T8) or even the samples collected from the farmer’s fields. After harvesting the crop, soil samples were analysed and it was found that the available N, P, K or even OC as well as soil microbial population increased over the initial for almost all treatments except the control.
Key words: Cabbage, Brassica oleraceae var. capitata, bulky organic manures, Yield attributes, Quality parameters.