Effect of Azotobacter and phosphorus solubilizing bacteria on growth and yield of okra

Abstract

A greenhouse experiment was conducted in Department of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Agriculture, IGKV, Raipur during 2017-18 with the objective to envisage the growth and yield of okra as affected by the application of bioinoculants, vermicompost as against recommended chemical fertilizers. The experiment was laid out in complete randomized design with six treatments and four replications. Treatments consisting of T1 100% NPK, T2 100% NPK+Vermicompost,T3-75%NPK+Vermicompost+PSB, T4-75%NPK+Vermicompost+Azotob acter, T5-75%NPK+Vermicompost+Azotobacter+PSB and T6-50% NPK+Vermicompost+Azotobacter+PSB. The results showed that the application of Azotobacter + PSB along with vermicompost and 75 % NPK produced significantly maximum growth attributes viz. plant height at 30, 60 DAS and at harvest, number of leaves per plant, chlorophyll content and yield and yield attributes like (Number of fruits per plant, fruit length, fruit weight, fruit yield plant-1) as compared to other treatments but remained at par with Azotobacter + PSB along with vermicompost and 50% NPK. Both the treatments showed superior effect on okra over rest of the treatments. Similarly, results also showed that application of vermicompost (T2) significantly increased the growth and yield parameters as compared to only inorganic treatment (T1). The significantly highest total yield (537.34 g and 518.58g) was recorded in treatment T5 and T6 which proved the best treatment combination in comparison to other treatments. From the present investigation and with the cost–effective point of view it can be inferred that an application of 50% NPK + vermicompost + Azotobacter + PSB observed to be beneficial in enhancing vegetative growth and increasing yield of okra.