Abstract

An investigation was undertaken with Bixa orellana the test tree species to standardize ideal Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) techniques for improving the growth of B. orellana seedlings, so as to obtain the best quality seedling within a shortest nursery period. A nursery experiment was conducted by raising seedlings in polybags filled with standard soil mixture 2:1:1 (Soil: Sand: FYM) with three levels of nitrogen (100, 200 and 300 mg N per seedling) as urea, three levels of phosphorus (200, 300 and 400 mg P₂O₅ per seedling) as single super phosphate and three levels of potassium (100, 200 and 300 mg of K₂O per seedling) as muriate of potash along with Farm Yard Manure (100g) per seedling, Azospirillum (5g) per seedling, Phosphobacteria (5g) per seedling and Vermicompost  (5g) per seedling.The cost analysis revealed a positive trend in reducing the nursery period. The observation of this study showed that the production of 1000 seedlings in control incurred a total cost of Rs.800.00 and the seedlings took 120 days to reach a height of 24.10 cm, collar diameter of 0.65 cm and shoot-root ratio of 0.97 but the application of treatment T₁₁ incurred Rs.1030.47 to produce the seedlings with same as that of control and it took 74 days only. Though the treatment T₁₁incurred little bit higher cost than other treatments it produced good quality seedlings and also reduced the nursery period.In the present investigation, application of 200 mg of N, 300 mg of P₂O₅ and 200 mg of K₂O along with Vermicompost (5g), Azospirillum (5g) and Phosphobacteria (5g) per seedling (T₁₁) has produced healthy seedlings of 38.69 cm height in 74 days.

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