Effect of Organic Nutrients on Growth and Flowering Attributes of African Marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) under Terai Region of West Bengal

Abstract

A field experiment was conductedat Instructional farm, Department of Floriculture, Medicinal and Aromatic plants, Faculty of Horticulture, Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya during 2019-2020 to study the “Effect of organic nutrients on growth and flowering attributes of African Marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) under Terai region of West Bengal” with the objectives of different organic inputs for production of quantitative and qualitative flowers of African Marigold. Now a day’s organic cultivation practices have immense potentiality due to huge demand as because it resulted low health hazards as well as gave pollution free environment and improved soil fertility. The experiment was laid out by following Factorial Randomized Complete Block Design, consists of two factors in which first factor was varieties (Pusa Bahar-V1 and Pusa Narangi Gainda- V2)and second factor was ten treatments combination. Different Organic nutrients like Farm Yard Manure (FYM), Vermicompost, Poultry Manure, Sea Weed extract, Vermi wash and Mustard oil cake extract used in the experiments as basal application and foliar spray according to the treatments. The vegetative and floral attributes were recorded at peak flowering stage and the data was statisticallyanalysed. The data was significantly differed among the varieties, treatments and different treatment combinations with varieties. Between the two varieties, var.Pusa Narangi Gainda (V2) showed early flowering compared to var. Pusa Bahar (V1) but the longer duration of flowering (49.41 days) was observed with the var. Pusa Bahar (V1). Among the ten treatments,the treatment T10 (Poultry Manure @ 2.5t/ha + Vermiwash @ 3%) resulted the best against the important flowering parameters like total number of flowers per plant (55.73) and weight of ten fresh flowers (103.08 g). The var.Pusa Narangi Gainda when treated with Poultry Manure @ 2.5t/ha + Vermiwash @ 3% (T10)showed better performance in respect of several morphological and quality parameters of African Marigold. It may be recommended that the application of Poultry Manure@ 2.5t/ha as basal with combination of Vermi wash @3% spraying attwice (30 and 45 days after transplanting) during the plant growth for quantitative and qualitative producesof African Marigold in the terai region of West Bengal.