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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn) is an evergreen subtropical fruit, known for its deliciously flavoured and juicy aril, high nutrition and refreshing taste. Owing to its growing popularity, new orchards are coming up in different traditional and nontraditional area. Quality of litchi fruit is an important component for market value and is influenced by many factors including nutrient and microenvironment management. An experiment using different combination of chemical fertilizer, organic manure and bio fertilizer was conducted on young growing orchard of cultivar Sahi in order to develop technology for integrated soil management for good quality litchi production. Irrespective of treatments, increase in the yield per tree was mere indication of growing and spreading plants which is further corroborated in terms of increasing girth, height and spread of canopy every year. The highest yield was recorded under treatment having Azotobactor 250 g, half of the recommended dose of chemical fertilizers + 50 kg FYM. This was at par with the litchi yield under treatment having 5 kg vermicompost in place of Azotobactor. Treatment effects were not prominent during initial years of experiment. This particular treatment receiving Azotobactor and vermicompost also yielded better quality fruits in terms of size class, fruit weight and other bio-physical properties. Fruit yield and quality in all treatments receiving 50 Kg of FYM was at par irrespective of the choice of the biofertilizers except combinations with Azotobactor or vermicopost in which higher yield and better quality were realized. During the final year, stem girth in all treatment involving application of FYM in combination with different microbes (Azospirillum, Azotobacter, Trichoderma, Pseudomonas fluencies, Aspergillus niger) were at par but better than other treatments. Soil organic carbon increased over the year in all experiment, more in treatments having application of FYM. Soil organic carbon from the manures and fertilizer application zone in treatments having FYM were higher as compared to other which indicates effectiveness of external application of organic matter in building soil organic even in tropical/subtropical conditions of Muzaffarpur, Bihar. Though the effect of treatment was established in terms of better yield, quality and soil health improvement, it must not be interpreted as an absolute for all type and age of orchards. Low per tree yield clearly indicates that tree was yet to come to its full bearing (80-100 kg/tree).