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An experiment was conducted at the Instructional Farm, College of
Agriculture, Vellayani during June 2001 to February 2002 to evaluate the effect of
organic manures on growth, yield and quality of turmeric grown as an intercrop in
coconut garden and to assess the relative efficiency of organic manures as
substitute to inorganic fertilizers. The experiment consisted of eleven treatments
and three replications laid out in RBD. The organic manures used were FYM,
vermicompost, neem cake, green leaves, poultry manure, biogas slurry and coir
pith compost. Organic manures were applied on nitrogen equivalent basis.
The results of the study revealed that the growth characters, rhizome yield
as well as quality aspects like volatile oil content of turmeric were significantly
influenced by various organic manures. But harvest index, top yield, curcumin
content, soil properties except NPK content were not significantly influenced by
various organic manures. In the case of weed biomass also no significant
influence was noticed. FYM, vermicompost and coir pith compost performed well
in the case of growth characters. Though FYM and coir pith compost maintained
their superiority at various growth stages regarding plant height, number of
leaves, number of tillers, dry matter production, LAI, LAD, and root: shoot ratio,
other organic manures like neem cake,' green leaves, poultry manure and biogas
slurry gave comparable results at various stages of growth.
Regarding rhizome spread and thickness, coir pith compost performed
superior and the superiority was present only during later stages of growth .. In the
case of root spread, root length and root volume also coir pith compost was the
best treatment. At initial stage of growth maximum root weight was produced by
FYM and at later stages coir pith compost performed better.
In the case ofCGR and RGR, FYM and vermicompost performed better. In
the case of NAR maximum values were produced by vermicompost, green leaves
and NPK alone as POP recommendations of KAU.
Coir pith compost as the source of organic manure had positive influence on
rhizome yield which was on par with FYM. Coir pith compost, vermicornpost and



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FYM performed better than other treatments in the case of dry turmeric and
bulking rate at various stages of growth. Absolute control treatment recorded
lower values in the case of growth and yield characters.
Quality of turmeric improved with various organic manures. Volatile oil
content was highest in the case of coir pith compost treatment and it was on par
with POP recommendations of KAU, NPK alone as per POP recommendations of
KAU and FYM alone as per POP recommendations ofKAU
In the case of residual nutrients high soil NPK values were registered by
green leaves.
B: C ratio was maximum when coir pith compost was used as the organic
manure and it was on par with FYM, vermicompost and poultry manure.
The significant impact of organic manures in the current research brings out
the suitability of organic manures as a substitute for inorganic fertilizers for
successful turmeric cultivation.