Effect of household waste based vermicompost and fertilizer on phosphorus and potassium mineralization in calcareous soil of Bihar

Abstract

An incubation experiment was conducted during Kharif 2018 at RPCAU, Pusa to examine the mineralization of vermicompost in calcareous sandy loam soil at five different stages which match with the critical growth stages of rice crop and the experiment was conducted in Completely Randomized design (3 factors) replicated thrice. There were four levels of vermicompost along with three levels of chemical fertilizers used at field capacity (19.47%) in combinations and alone. Results indicated that content of available P2O5 and K2O in soil increased up to 65 DAI then decreased gradually. Application of increasing level of vermicompost and fertilizer alone or in combination resulted in corresponding increase in the available nutrient content of soil. During the study, it was observed that the treatment combination involving application of highest dose of vermicompost (3.75 t ha -1 ) along with full dose of fertilizer (RDF) was significantly superior.