Effect of waste water and fly ash application on physiological determinants, yield, and heavy metal contents of yellow mustard (B. campestris cv. P. Gold)

ABSTRACT

A pot experiment was conducted to study the comparative effect of waste water (WW) and ground water (GW) alone and along with different nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) combinations (N₀P₀K₀, N₄₀P₁₅K₁₅, N₆₀P₃₀K₃₀, N₈₀P₄₅K₄₅) together with different levels of fly ash (FA) (FA₀, FA₁₀, FA₂₀), to obtain a suitable combination of fertilizers, FA and water based on the growth, physiology, yield, and heavy metal contents of Brassica campestris cv. Pusa Gold. Results revealed that WW irrigation proved beneficial over GW. All the parameters increased in both levels of FA₁₀ and FA₂₀ along with three doses of NPK but FA at 20 t ha⁻¹ proved better. The effect was more efficacious with both wastes together which makes NPK optimum at N₆₀P₃₀K₃₀ instead of N₈₀P₄₅K₄₅ treatment combinations and thereby lowered input of fertilizers. Therefore, utilization of these wastes may be recommended for the purpose of irrigation, soil amendment, and as a source of nutrients in augmenting the mustard yield.

KEYWORDS:

• waste water
• fly ash
• inorganic fertilizers
• heavy metals
• physico-chemical properties
• yield
• photosynthetic rate

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Chairman, Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University for providing all the necessary facilities to carry out this work.

Funding

SS and AI thank the University Grant Commission (UGC) as the work was funded under Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship in the form of Junior Research Fellow and Senior Research Fellow (JRF and SRF) with Grant No. 16-1274(SC)/2009 SA-III.