Abstract:
Sudden food shortage due to strict green agriculture policy, economic crisis, COVID
pandemic situation instruct the importance of home level organic production of good quality
fruits and vegetables. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to test the efficacy of organic
liquid fertilizers formulated from fish, livestock’s and plant wastes on leafy vegetable green
Amaranth to promote home gardening. The liquid fertilizer was tested on Amaranth grown
separately in vemicompost and garden compost. The 7 kg capacity pots were filled with two
media (medium 1: vemicompost; medium 2: garden compost) and arranged in CRD with four
replicates with each medium. Five plants of green-amaranth per pot were planted and
treated with fish emulsion + vermi-tea (1:4=T1), cow urine + vermi-tea (1:4=T2), three
leaves [Neem+ Giliricidia+ Candle bush] solution + vermi tea (3:1=T3), vermi tea (T4) and
control (T5) at the rate of 50 mL/pot on 2nd
, 4
th and 6th week after planting. Agronomic and
yield data were collected and subjected to ANOVA using SAS. Tukey's HSD multiple
comparison test and PROC CORR was used to determine the best treatment combination at
P <0.05. The results revealed that there was significant difference in N, P and K content of
the treatments tested. The plant height, leaf area, number of leaves, root shoot ratio was
significantly higher in fish emulsion + vermi-tea (1:4) [T1] and cow urine + vermi-tea [T2]
at 8th weeks after planting in vermi-compost medium. There was strong and positive
correlation (R2 > 0.8) among yield parameters, and root: shoot ratio with N, P K content of
the liquid fertilizers tested in vermi-compost medium. Therefore, this investigation concludes
that the fish emulsion + vermi-tea (1:4) and cow urine + vermi-tea (1:4) are good
combination to use as liquid fertilizer at the rate of 50mL/Pot to get best yield in vermi-
compost medium.
