Abstract

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MORPHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MAIZE (ZEA MAYS L.) PLANTS WHEN TREATED WITH VERMICOMPOST, VERMI-TEA AND CHEMICAL FERTILIZER

Dr. Neelam Tripathi and Dr. Rekhani Jyoti Pal*

.

Abstract

The experiment was conducted for the evaluation of the performance of Maize plant to Vermicompost, Vermi-tea and Chemical Fertilizer. Vermicompost used as a fertilizer and soil conditioner (Munroe 2007, Rajesh et al. 2003) responsible for the improvement of the physical properties of soil and supply vital plant nutrients (Smith et al. 2014). Though single nutrient source may supply the respective required nutrients for plant but integrated use of all sources is required for balanced plant nutrition (Arora 2008). Both earthworms and its vermicast and body liquid (vermiwash) are scientifically proving as both „growth promoters and protectors‟ for crop plants. . With the objective to combat the nutrients deficiency, an experiment was conducted in Ambala City, Haryana under field conditions. In field four different fertilizers [F1: Control (No fertilizer application); F2: Solid vermicompost @ 5 ton/ha; F3: vermi-tea @ 6 %; F4 : Chemical fertilizers (N and P) @ 120-100 kg/ha were applied in maize hybrid M30E71. The plants were harvested 60 days after sowing and the evaluation was done on the basis of various morphological (root length, shoot length, root fresh weight, shoot fresh weight, root dry weight, shoot dry weight, number of leaf, leaf length, stem girth) and physiological parameters (relative water contents (RWC), chlorophyll contents and membrane stability index (MSI)). The obtained results indicated that vermi-fertilizers and chemical fertilizer significantly increased all of the above said parameters of maize as compared to control but foliar application of 6% vermi-tea treatment showed maximum morphological and physiological performance of maize.

Keywords: Earthworms and vermi-compost, plant growth promoter, physiological, improve soil fertility, morphological, vermi-tea, vermi-fertilizer, maize.