MULCHES AND NUTRIENTS AFFECT THE SOIL ENVIRONMENT, CROP PERFORMANCE AND PROFITABILITY OF CAULIFLOWER - V. Kumar; J. C. Sharma; M. Kumar; S. K. Singh; A. Kumar (Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences, 2019)
Crop yields are limited by water, temperature and nutrient availability. Soil mulching (with plastic or straw) reduces evaporation, modifies soil temperature and thereby affects crop yields. Reported effects of mulching are sometimes contradictory, likely due to differences in climatic conditions, soil characteristics, crop species, and also water and nutrient input. Two years field experiment was established at Himachal Pradesh, India under twelve treatment combinations of mulch and nutrient level were practised in a randomized block design. Four types of mulches (i.e., black plastic mulch-BP, grass mulch-GM, pine needle mulch-PN, and unmulched control-UM) and three levels of nutrients (i.e., 125% of recommended dose of NPK- N1, 100% recommended dose of NPK -N2 and 75% of recommended dose of NPK- N3) were replicated thrice. Results of two years data revealed that all mulches maintained comparatively higher in situ soil moisture and black plastic mulch conserved the highest moisture content which was 21.3% as compared to unmulched in 0-15 cm soil depth. Mulches favorably moderated the soil temperature where black plastic mulch recorded the highest temperature at 7:30 hrs and 14:30 hrs during both the years at 15 cm depth. Grass and pine needles mulches reduced the soil bulk density and improved the soil organic carbon over unmulched control. Availability of SO42- -S and Ca were improved under mulch, nutrient levels alone and their combinations when compared to unmulched control and 75% NPK nutrient levels. Mulching along with different levels of NPK nutrients improved the growth attributes, increased the productivity and uptake of secondary nutrients of cauliflower. Black plastic mulch in combination with 125% of recommended dose of NPK obtained the highest curd yield (26.7 t/ha) which well reflected to more favourable economics as compared to other treatment combinations.
Keywords: journal article; Cauliflower; Mulches; Nutrients; Moisture; Temperature; Economics