MSc

An experiment was conducted at the Instructional Farm attached to the
College of Agriculture, Vellayani during January to May 1997 with the
objectives of finding out the potential of using farmyard manure, poultry
manure, vermicompost and fertilizers and the extend to which organic manures
can be substituted for fertilizers for increasing yield and improving the quality
of snake gourd (Trichoso/hes anguina L.). Three sources of organic manures,
three levels of chemical fertilizers and three additional treatments (organic
sources + organic sources to substitute NPK) were tested for their efficiency in
3 X 3 + 3 factorial RBD with three replications.
The results of the study revealed that yield attributing characters like
length of the fruit, weight of the fruit and number of fruits per plant were
highest in plots applied with farmyard manure + farmyard manure to substitute



NPK.


The organic manures, levels of inorganic fertilizers and their



interactions didn't produce any marked difference in the yield of the crop.
But significant difference was observed among additional treatments. Among
additional treatments, plots applied with farmyard manure was found to be the
best, (57250 kg ha") which was on par with poultry manure (53500 kg ha-I).
Growth characters VIZ. weight of the roots plant" and dry matter
production ha" were also highest in farmyard manure alone applied plots.

Application of chemical fertilizers significantly improve the nitrogen
content in plant parts and fruits. Highest nitrogen content of plant and fruit
was observed with full NPK levels (70 : 25 : 25 kg NPK ha-I).
Different organic sources, levels of chemical fertilizers and their
interactions failed to show any significant effect on N uptake of the plant.
However increased levels of fertilizers increased the uptake of N.
The organic forms of manures showed a definite advantage over
inorganic fertilizers on the quality of the fruit. Among quality attributes,
significantly higher values for Total Soluble Solids (TSS), vit.C., total sugars
and increased shelf life were observed in fruits obtained from vermicompost
applied plots.
When the economics of production was worked out, it was observed
that all treatments were able to fetch more profit, and the maximum B : C of
5.5 was observed by the application of vermicompost with 3/4 NPK.
The present study revealed that integration of vermicompost with
chemical fertilizers was beneficial for increasing the yield and improvement in


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quality along with a low financial input.