Liquid formulations for production of organic oriental pickling melon (Cucumis melo var. conomon L.)

Abstract

The study on “Liquid formulations for production of organic orientalpickling melon (Cucumis melo var. conomon L.)” was carried out in College of Horticulture, Kerala Agricultural University, Vellanikkara, Thrissur during 2013-2014. There were two experiments viz. Effect of seed treatment with liquid formulations on germination and seedling vigour in oriental pickling melon and Evaluation of liquid organic manures on growth and yield of oriental pickling melon.The seeds treated with liquid organic manures showed better results in all observations such as germination percentage, length of radicle, length of plumule, dry weight, fresh weight and vigour index. The treatments receiving Panchagavyam+ Pseudomonas, Beejamrutham+ seudomonas, Panchagavyam and cow dung slurry were superior in early germination and seedling growth. The second experiment consisted of 11 treatments including different combinations of organic manures and supplements and package of practices recommendation by KAU. Saubhagya variety of oriental pickling melon was used for the study. The organic manures viz. poultry manure, coir pith compost, ground nut cake, neem cake and liquid organic manures viz. Jeevamrutham, Panchagavyam, Fish mino acid, Green leaf extract and Liquid extract of composite organic manures were the sources of nutrients. All the treatments except T were given basal and top dressing applicaton of organic manures as per the Package of practices recommendations (Adhoc) for organic farming : Crops. Seeds except in T 9 were treated with (Panchagavyam+ Pseudomonas) and have shown early germination and seedling vigour. Growth parameters like length of vine, number of leaves, dry matter production were significantly influenced by the treatments. The treatment receiving Fish amino acid recorded the highest length of vine (114.16cm) and number of leaves (37.66). Early flowering and harvesting could be achieved in Fish amino acid (22.66 9 and 50.66 DAS respectively) treated plots. Jeevamrutham treated plants had the highest dry matter production of 96.4g. Yield and yield attributes like number of fruits per plant, mean fruit weight, volume of fruit and yield per ha were also significantly influenced by the application of different liquid organic formulations. Highest number of fruits per plant (3.83) and weight of fruits (2.5 kg/plant), volume of fruit (770 cm ) and yield per ha (30.33 t/ha)were observed in Jeevamrutham and Panchagavyam treated plots. With regard to the soil microbial count at different intervals of crop growth,the treatment receiving liquid extract of composite organic manure resulted in highest, fungal population meanwhile Jeevamrutham had the highest bacterial and actinomycetes population . All the micro organisms were minimum in the treatments receiving Package of Practices recommendations of KAU. With regard to microbial count in liquid formulations the highest fungal and bacterial count was recorded in Panchagavyam followed by Jeevamrutham. NPK content was more in liquid extract of composite organic manure followed by fish amino acid. 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, texture, taste and colour was noticed in the treatment receiving Jeevamrutham followed by Panchagavyam and Fish amino acid. The overall acceptability was also more for the fruits from the organically treated plots. The treatment receiving Jeevamrutham was found to be significantly superior to other treatments in getting higher gross income, net return and B: C ratio followed by Green leaf extract and Panchagavyam.