Influence of different organic amendments in modulation of soil physico-chemical characteristics and growth of marigold seedlings

Abstract

Organic farming has emerged as a sustainable approach for increasing crop production while maintaining soil fertility. This eco-friendly practice relies on the use of various living microbes such as Rhizobia, arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi (AMF) and partially or fully decomposed biological materials like manure, compost, litter, coir, moss, and similar products used as soil supplements and/or conditioners for augmenting soil fertility. The present study was designed to evaluate the effect of these amendments on soil physico-chemical characteristics, and on germination and growth of marigold (Tagetes erecta) seedlings raised on these soils. The experiment was carried out in pots filled with garden soil amended with compost, moss, coir and NPK while un-amended garden soil served as control. Analysis of soil samples with organic materials show a slight change toward basic pH while inorganic fertilizer made the soil acidic. All the amendments led to increase in electrical conductivity while modulation of soil texture resulted in change in percolation rate. Amendments also resulted in changes in the soil nutrient content (organic C, N, P, K, Mg, Cu and Zn). However, coir and moss amendments did not bring about much change in nutrient status of the soil. There were notable changes in growth of marigold expressed in increased fresh weight, root length, shoot length as well number of nodes and number of leaves in amended soils. The study indicates that though coir and moss did not bring much change in nutrient status of soil but they altered the particle size for improved percolation.

Keywords:

• Coir
• moss
• NPK
• organic farming
• soil nutrients

Acknowledgements

All the authors are grateful to the Science Research Scheme, Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College, University of Delhi, for providing financial assistance. Thanks are also extended to Dr. Jaswinder Singh Principal, SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi for providing necessary facilities to carry out the study. PM acknowledges University of North Bengal for providing necessary assistance for writing this article.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Author’s contribution

Piyush Mathur wrote and edited the manuscript; analyzed the results. Inderdeep Kaur has planned methodology, designed the work and assisted in editing and writing of manuscript. Sagar Dhama and Anirudh Mukerji meticulously carried out the experiments and collected data.