Abstract:
Farmers tend to use inorganic fertilizers in excess amount for getting high yield. Excess
application of inorganic fertilizer is detrimental. In this background a study was undertaken to
formulate a low-cost organic fertilizer and examine the effectiveness of Spirulina, Azolla and
formulated organic fertilizer (FOF) on germination and seedling vigor of Curry Chilli, Green
Chilli, Water spinach and Sugar graze and to evaluate the effect of FOF on growth and yield of
Sugar graze. The organic fertilizer was formulated based on nutrient analysis, using dry powders
of Spirulina, Azolla, and three underutilized resources, namely Palmyrah leaf, Coconut leaf and
Banana pseudostem. The germination experiment was carried out with three replicates in
Complete randomized design (CRD) with five treatments namely T1 - FOF, T2 - dry Azolla
powder, T3 - dry Spirulina powder, T4 - live Spirulina culture and T5 - Control (Distilled water) .
A pot experiment was conducted in net house to find the response of Sugar graze for different
fertilizer combinations. Treatments were T1 - control (no fertilizer), T2- 100% inorganic (NPK 2.7, 1.8, 0.9 g/pot ), T3 - 50% inorganic(NPK-1.35, 0.9, 0.45 g/pot), T4 - 100% organic (cattle
manure - 540 g/pot), T5 - 50% organic (cattle manure - 270 g/pot), T6 - 50% inorganic (NPK 1.35, 0.9, 0.45 g/pot) + 270 g FOF and T7 - 50% organic (cattle manure - 270 g/pot) + 270 g
FOF. Design was CRD with two replicates. Nutrient uptake of the plants, plant height and yield
were measured. The recorded data were statistically analysed using Analysis of Variance and
treatment means were compared using Duncan’s multiple range test. Result showed that soaking
with Spirulina, Azolla and FOF improves the germination (5 -15%) and seedling vigour (12-
53%) compared to control in all selected seeds. T6 (50% inorganic + FOF) and T2 (100%
inorganic) recorded the same average value in height (210 cm), which was the highest among
treatments. T4 (100% organic) recorded the highest value in potassium (34.34 g/plant) uptake.
T7 (50% organic + FOF) recorded the highest values in nitrogen (0.82 g/plant) and phosphorous
(2.18 g/plant) uptake and fresh biomass yield (158 g/plant) and dry biomass yield (41 g/plant).
This finding indicates that by substituting 50% of organic or inorganic fertilizer with FOF, either
similar or higher performance of sugar graze compared to 100% organic or inorganic treatments
can be obtained.
