MSc

The study entitled “Development of multinutrient fertilizer tablet and its evaluation in tomato”was conducted from 2017 to 2019 in the Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, College of Agriculture, Vellayani. The objectives of the study were to develop multi nutrient fertilizer tablet containing major, secondary and micronutrients and to evaluate its effect on nutrient use efficiency, yield and quality of tomato. The study consisted of three parts namely development of multinutrient fertilizer tablets, an incubation study to assess the nutrient release pattern of multi nutrient tablets and a pot culture experiment to evaluate the multi nutrient tablets in tomato.
Multinutrient fertilizer tablets were developed using three fertilizer combinations and three binding agents which constitute the 9 treatments and are replicated thrice in CRD. The treatments were T1- urea, dicalcium phosphate, potassium sulphate, calcium sulphate, magnesium oxide, zinc EDTA, boric acid and binding agent methyl cellulose, T2- fertilizer materials as in T1 and binding agent gelatin, T3 – fertilizer materials as in T1 and binding agent polyvinyl pyrrolidone, T4 – urea, diammonium phosphate, muriate of potash, calcium sulphate, magnesium sulphate, zinc EDTA, borax and binding agent methyl cellulose, T5 – fertilizer materials as in T4 and binding agent gelatin, T6 – fertilizer materials as in T4 and binding agent polyvinyl pyrrolidone, T7 – neem coated urea, factomphos, muriate of potash, magnesium oxide, phosphogypsum, zinc sulphate, borax and binding agent methyl cellulose, T8 – fertilizer materials as in T7 and binding agent gelatin and T9 – fertilizer materials as in T7 and binding agent polyvinyl pyrrolidone.
Compatibility test of multinutrient fertilizer blends revealed that tablets T3, T4, T5 and T7 were non hygroscopic and no caking or colour change were observed. Whereas T8 and T9 were hygroscopic. Caking was observed in tablet T2 and T6 and colour change was noticed in tablets T6, T8 and T9. Analysis of physical and chemical properties of tablets revealed that tablets T3, T4, T5, T7, T8 and T9 were stable, disintegration time ranged from 10 to 12 hours, moisture content ranged from 6.46 to 9.24% and EC ranged between 9.75 and 29.1 dS m-1. The pH of tablets T1, T2 and T3 were slightly alkaline while T4, T5, T6, T7, T8 and T9 were slightly acidic. The nutrient content in tablets ranged from 7.69 to 8.69 % nitrogen, 4.43 to 4.82 % phosphorus, 2.1 to 3.2 % potassium, 5.81 to 6.45 % calcium, 0.65 to 0.68 % magnesium, 2.37 to 3.27 % sulphur, 0.21 to 0.22 % boron and 0.21 to 0.25 % zinc.
An incubation study was conducted for a period of three months to determine the nutrient release pattern of tablets in CRD with 9 treatments and 3 replications. Soil samples were drawn at 15 days interval and analyzed for major, secondary and micronutrients. The results revealed that the tablets T3, T4, T5 and T7 were found to be the best with respect to the release of nutrients N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Zn and B throughout the incubation period and were selected for evaluation in the pot culture experiment.
A pot culture experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of the selected multinutrient tablets on yield and quality of tomato variety vellayani vijay in a completely randomized design with 11 treatments and 3 replications. The treatments T1 to T8 consisted of two levels (75% and 100 %) of recommended dose of fertilizers applied as the seleced 4 tablets, T9 was soil test based POP recommendation, T10 was T9 + secondary and micronutrient mixture and T11 was absolute control.
The results revealed that the treatment T7 which received 75 % recommended dose of fertilizers as tablet 4 containing neem coated urea, factomphos, muriate of potash, magnesium oxide, phosphogypsum, zinc sulphate, borax and binding agent methyl cellulose recorded the maximum plant height (63 cm), number of branches per plant (6.67) and number of fruits per plant (16). Fruit weight was maximum in T7 (33.77 g) which was on par with T8 (32.27 g). Fruit yield was the highest in T7 (502.02 g plant-1) which was on par with T8 (495.66 g plant-1). Early flowering and fruiting were observed in T9. Lycopene content was also found to be the highest in T7 (16.73 μg g-1) whereas no significant difference was observed with respect to TSS and ascorbic acid.
The analysis of post harvest soil revealed that electrical conductivity and available nutrients were significantly influenced by different treatments whereas pH and organic carbon content were found to be nonsignificant. The available nitrogen (321.96 kg ha-1), phosphorus (88.18 kg ha-1), potassium (216.53 kg ha-1), calcium (342.56 mg kg-1), zinc (0.34 mg kg-1) and boron (4.21 mg kg-1) were the highest in T8 and was found to be on par with T7. With respect to magnesium (107 mg kg-1) and sulphur (8.35 mg kg-1) T6 recorded the highest value.
The content and uptake of nutrients in plant and fruit were found to be significantly influenced by different treatments. The treatment T7 recorded the highest content and uptake of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, B and Zn. The highest NUE of nitrogen (58.77 g g-1), phosphorus (55.10 g g-1) and potassium (79.35 g g-1) was observed in treatment T7 followed by T8.
It can be concluded that multinutrient tablets containing macro, secondary and micro nutrients can be prepared using compatible fertilizer materials and binding agents. The multinutrient tablets T3, T4, T5 and T7 were found to be superior with respect to stability, disintegration time and release of nutrients. Application of multinutrient tablet containing neem coated urea, factomphos, muriate of potash, magnesium oxide, phosphogypsum, zinc sulphate, borax and binding agent methyl cellulose (T7) at 75 % of recommended dose of fertilizers was able to significantly increase the yield, uptake of nutrients, nutrient use efficiency and quality of tomato.