MSc

A study on “ Nutrient management in organic farming of cucumber (Cucumis
sativus L.) was carried out in the Department of Agronomy, College of Horticulture,
Vellanikkara during 2012-2013. The experiment consisted of 13 treatments including
different combinations of organic manures and supplements, package of practices
recommendation by KAU, inorganics alone and control to develop a nutrient
management strategy in organic farming of cucumber. The variety AAUC-2 was used
for the study. The organic manures viz., FYM, poultry manure, vermi compost,
neem cake and liquid organic manures viz., Beejamrutham, Jeevamrutham,
Panchagavyam and fish amino acid were the sources of nutrients.
All the treatments receiving FYM as basal dose along with seed treatment with
azospirillum, phosphate solubilizing bacteria and Pseudomonas have shown early
germination and seedling vigour. Growth parameters like length of vine, number of
leaves, number of branches were significantly influenced by the treatments. The
treatment receiving poultry manure + N P K recorded the maximum vine length on 45
DAS followed by poultry manure + Beejamrutham + Jeevamrutham + mulching.
Highest number of leaves was produced by poultry manure +fish amino acid treated
plants followed by poultry manure + panchagavyam treated ones. The number of
branches was also significantly higher in poultry manure + fish amino acid treated
plots. The LAI was significantly higher in poultry manure + panchagavyam treated
plants.
The flowering was early as 27 DAS in the treatment receiving poultry manure
+ fish amino acid against 38 days in N P K alone treatment and 47 days in the
absolute control. The fruits could be harvested from the treatment receiving poultry
manure + fish amino acid on 35 DAS followed by that receiving poultry manure +
beejamrutham + jeevamrutham + mulching. Yield and yield attributes like number of
fruits per plant, mean fruit weight were also significantly influenced by the
application of different organic manures. Highest number of fruits/plant and weight of
fruits were observed in Adhoc Package of practices. Highest yield of 53.94 t ha-1 was
recorded in plots receiving Adhoc package of practices recommendations by KAU
(Organic farming) which was 5.5 t more than the present package of practices
recommendations by KAU. The total productive period of the crop was higher in
organically treated plots. The period extended up to 98 days in the treatment receiving
poultry manure + fish amino acid as against 77 days in N P K applied plots. The
highest shelf life of 8.5 days was also recorded for the same treatment.
With regard to the soil microbial count at different intervals of crop growth,
the treatment receiving jeevamrutham and mulching resulted in the highest bacterial
and fungal count where as the neem cake application resulted in the highest count of
actinomycetes. All the micro organisms were minimum in the treatments receiving
chemical fertilizers. Statistical analysis by Kendall’s test by ranks of the acceptability
score revealed that there was significant variation among the treatments in the quality
attributes of fruits. The highest score for appearance and colour was also recorded in
the treatment receiving panchagavyam followed by the one receiving fish amino acid.
The overall acceptability was also more for the fruits from the organically treated
plots. The treatment receiving Adhoc POP was found to be significantly superior to
other treatments in getting higher gross income, net return and B:C ratio followed by
the present POP.