Abstract:
Cauliflower production in Bhutan is one of the cash crops generating Nu.31 million in 2016,
however, it is a crop requiring heavy fertilization. However, synthetic fertilization was reported
to degrade the soil and its productivity in the long run by numerous scientists all over the world.
Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of locally available organic
fertilizers on growth and yield of cauliflower and its soil nutrient constituent. The study included
six different treatments namely T1 (Control), T2 (Vermicompost), T3 (Bio-slurry), T4 (FYM),
T5 (Jholmol) and T6 (Bhur OM). The study revealed that application of locally available organic
fertilizers had a statistically significant effect (P value = 0.0003) on the yield of cauliflower. The
highest yield was obtained from T2 (25.77 tons/ha) which was 8.30 % more compared to the
lowest yield from T1 (14.33 tons/ha). Growth parameters like plant height, plant width, curd
length, curd width, curd height and number of leaves were not significantly affected by the
application of organic fertilizers; however, except for plant height and number of leaves, T1
performed the lowest in other growth parameters. A statistically significant effect in soil nutrient
composition was observed on applying different organic fertilizers. T6 and T5 had high major
soil nutrient content such as organic matter, available phosphorus and available potassium but it
was observed that their yield was low as compared to other treatments. This could be linked to
nutrient unavailability due to high C:N ratio in T6 (21) and T5 (23). In general, the result of the study revealed that the application of organic fertilizers in cauliflower had a positive effect on its
yield, growth parameters and soil quality. |
