A field experiment was conducted at Dept. of Botany, Bangalore University, Bangalore, in 2010-2011 to evaluate the response of microbial inoculants and organic manure (vermicompost) on growth of Amaranthus. Combined inoculation with vermicompost and bioinoculants Frateuria aurentia (Potassium mobilizer), Trichoderma viride, Azospirillium brasilense and Pseudomonas fluorescens significantly increased plant biomass, yield and nutrient content. Plants inoculated with vermicompost and Frateuria aurentia was showed highest nutrient uptake than vermicompost and Azospirillum brasilense inoculated plants followed by Pseudomonas fluorescens

SANJUKTA BISWAS, .

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IJSR - INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH 31 Volume : 3 | Issue : 9 | September 2014 • ISSN No 2277 - 8179Research PaperBotanySANJUKTA BISWAS Department of Botany, Biofertilizer Lab, Bangalore University,  Bangalore-560056 (Karnataka)Influence of Microbial Enriched Vermicompost on the Growth and Nutrient Content of Amaranthus Cruentus L.KEYWORDS :  Bioinoculants, vermicom-post, Amaranthus, FrateuriaABSTRACT A field experiment was conducted at Dept. of Botany, Bangalore University, Bangalore, in 2010-2011 to evaluate the response of microbial inoculants and organic manure (vermicompost) on growth of Amaranthus. Combined inoculation with vermicompost and  bioinoculants Frateuria aurentia (Potassium mobilizer), Trichoderma viride, Azospirillium brasilense and Pseudomonas fluorescens  significantly increased plant biomass, yield and nutrient content. Plants inoculated with vermicompost and Frateuria aurentia was showed highest nutrient uptake than vermicompost and Azospirillum brasilense inoculated plants followed by Pseudomonas fluorescens.INTRODUCTIONVermicompost is an organic manure  produced as the vermicastby earthworm feeding on biological waste material; plant residues (Rathore et.al., 2007).Vermicompost is one of the best source of nutrients improves the physical and chemical properties of crops (Meena et.al., 2007, Nag and Roy, 2008, Tolanur, 2009, Sinha et.al., 2010).Bioinoculants are beneficial microbes which are used to promote plant growth, soil health and sustainable agriculture  Or-ganic manure enriched with bioinoculants enhances productivity of a wide range of crops (Yadav et.al., 2011).Leafy vegetables rep-resent good sources of vitamin A, C as well as minerals such as iron and calcium, besides dietary fibres. Amaranthus is commonly used and cooked in local. Hence, the present study was carried out with a view to standardize, evaluate the effect of vermicom-post used as soil amendment along with bioinoculants with due regards to growth, qualitative and quantitative modulation of leaf production. For determining the growth parameters   were ex-pressed as number of leaves, fresh weight and dry weight, whereas plant nutrient contents were determined by the method described by Piper,1966(calcium and magnesium) and Jackson,1971 (phos-phorus).MATERIALS AND METHODSA field experiment was carried out at Dept. of Botany, Bangalore University,Bangalore,  in 2010-2011, in replicated randomized block designs with three replications for each treatment. The traditional seed variety of Amaranthus were used for the experi-ment. Bioinoculants used for treatments were Frateuria aurentia (potassium mobilizer), Trichoderma viride (biocontrol agent), Azospirillum brasilense (as nitrogen source), Pseudomonas fluo-rescens (growth promoting bacteria). The treatments are as follows:Frateuria aurentia + Vermicompost (T₁),  Trichoderma viride+ Vermicompost(T₂), Azospirillum brasilense+ Vermicom-post (T₃), Pseudomonas fluoroscens + Vermicompost (T₄) and Vermicompost alone as control.Bioinoculants containing 10⁹ cells were enriched with vermicompost and applied to the plants.  The plant parameters like root length, shoot length, number of leaves were recorded at 15 and 45 days after harvest. Shoot dry weights were determined after drying the plant sam-ples at 60⁰C to a constant weight in a hot air oven.RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONTable-1 depicts the response of  different bioinoculants  with vermicompost on  growth parameters viz., root length ,shoot length, number of leaves and fresh weight of Amaranthus at different duration. Among the various treatments  significant increase in number of leaves  were recorded in both T₁ and T₃ (Frateuria aurentia and Azospirillum brasilense). These findings are in agreement with Thenmozhi, et.al., 2010, which showed that bioinoculants viz., Azospirillum and Pseudomonas, and or-ganic manure as vermicompost has influenced the growth at-tributes  viz., shoot and root length, plant biomass and number of leaves in Amaranthus retroflexus. Higher leaf yield was re-corded maximum in T3 inoculated with vermicompost and Azos-pirillum brasilense followed by T1 (Frateuria aurentia along with vermicompost). More dry matter accumulation might be due to beneficial effect of vermicompost and Potassium.The results pertaining to changes in (Table-2) mineral nutrients indicated that the macro nutrient (calcium, magnesium and phosphorus) uptake significantly increased. Highest level ofCalcium, Magne-sium and Phosphorus was recorded for the treatment T₁ and T₃ (Frateuria aurentia and Azospirillum brasilense). In general, or-ganic fertilizer (vermicompost) in conjunction with biofertilizer recorded the highest values of macronutrients and concentra-tions in Amaranthus tissues than with other check treatments, whereas the lowest values of macronutrients (Calcium, Magne-sium and  Phosphorus) registered with sole application of bioin-oculants.Field results reveals that, by applying Frateuria aurentia (potas-sium mobilizer) 15-20 per cent yield enhancedMarked increase in nutrient contents were also observed in mi-crobialenriched vermicompost than control(Table-2).Table: 1 Influence of  Microbial Enriched Vermicompost  on Growth Parameters  of  Amaranthus cruentus L.TreatmentsPlant Growth (DAYS)15 45R. L. (cm) S L. (cm) No. of Leaves F.W (g) D.W. (g) R. L. (cm) S L. (cm) No. of Leaves F.W (g) D.W. (g)T₁ 8.70 44.9 40.00 42.7 7.75 8.42 57.9 60.75 118.15 19.10T₂ 5.87 45.5 36.50 38.7 8.40 8.40 52.4 51.75 86.65 12.82T₃ 6.82 45.2 41.00 53.5 7.65 7.65 61.0 51.50 135.30 18.75T₄ 3.70 41.2 36.25 36.7 6.65 5.75 48.2 31.25 67.50 8.50C 5.12 34.3 31.25 24.0 5.22 3.42 36.3 43.00 33.50 6.62SEM ± 0.2841 0.6823 0.975 1.2281 0.40896 0.7008 4.1532 2.275 3.1076 1.4980CD @ 5 % 0.4989 1.1960 1.7086 2.1531 0.7163 1.2283 7.2808 3.9879 5.4478 2.626032 IJSR - INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCHVolume : 3 | Issue : 9 | September 2014 • ISSN No 2277 - 8179Research PaperREFERENCEChandra Krishan, 2006, 2010., PotashMobilizing Bacteria., Published by Regional DirectorRegional Centre of Organic Farming, Govt. of India, Ministry of Agriculture, Dept. of Agriculture & Co-operation. | GeethakumariV.L., Annamma George and Usha C.Thomas, 2009, OrganicNutrient Scheduling for Amaranthus (Amaranthussps.). Green Farming, 2(9), 603-605. | Meena Omraj, H.R.Khafi, M.A. Seikh, Asha C.Mehta and B.K.Davda, 2007,Effect ofVermicompost and NitrogenOnContent,Uptake and Yield of RabiMaize, Journal of Crop. Res.,33 (1,2 &3),53-54. | Nag Kaushik and Singha Roy A.K., 2008, Residual Effect of Vermicompost, Chemical Fertilizerand Biofertilizer in Wheat (Triticum aestivum) on Succeeding Fodder Cowpea (Vignaunguiculata), Ann.Agric.Res.New Series, 29 (1,2,3 &4)73-77.|Rathore M.S., M.Singh, D.Panwar and N.S.Shekhawat, 2007, Vermicomposting:TowardsCleanAnd Green Farming,Green Farming, 1(1), 28-30. | Sinha Jayanta, Biswas Chanchal Kumar , GhoshArup and Saha Amit, 2010,Efficacy of Vermicompost AgainstFertilizers onCicer andPisum and of Population diversity of NitrogenFixing Bacteria, Journal of Environmental Biology,31,287-292. | ThenmozhiR.,RejinaK.,K.Madhusudhanan,A.Nagasathya, 2010, StudyonEffectiveness of Various Biofertilizers on TheGrowth & Biomass Production ofSelectedVegetables, Research-Journal of Agriculture and Biological Sciences,6 (3),296-301. | Tolanur S.L., 2009, Effect of Compost, Vermicompost, FarmYard Manure, Green Manuringand FertilizerNitrogen on Yield and Uptake of Major Nutrients by Rabi-Sorghum inVertisol.Agric.Sci.Digest, 29(1), 60-62.| Yadav Janardan and Yadav A.K., 2011,Isolation and Characterization ofPlantGrowthPromot-ingRhizobacteria For MultipleUse as Composite Biofertilizer in Organic Crop Production, Biofertilizer Newsletter,19(1),10-16.Present study revealed that microbial enriched vermicompost had positive influence on nutrient uptake by plant tissues over control. Highest total uptake of nutrients viz., Calcium, Magne-sium and Phosphorus of Amaranthus crop was observed in T₃ followed by T₂ over control. The different biochemical changes due to different bioinoculants treatments were thorough studied by analysing the samples drawn at 15 and 45 day of harvest. Cal-cium, magnesium and phosphorus were estimated by adopting standard procedure.Similar reports on combined inoculation of vermicompost with Frateuria aurentia  and Azospirillum brasilense  have been re-ported to show increased nutrients in Amaranthusis in agree-ment with GeethaKumari et.al., 2009. Further, the nutrients uptake in Amaranthus plants was also higher in consortia con-taining vermicompost with Azospirillum brasilense followed by Frateuria aurentia and the results are in conformity with the ear-lier findings of Kumarswamy (2002) andChandra(2006,2010).Table: 2 Influence of Microbial Enriched Vermicompost on Nutrient Uptake of Amaranthus cruentus L.TreatmentsPlant Growth (DAYS)15 45Ca (µg/g)Mg (µg/g)P (µg/g)Ca (µg/g)Mg (µg/g)P (µg/g)T₁ 1.72 5.22 21.0 2.52 7.32 42.5T₂ 1.12 8.17 10.2 5.82 6.02 35.5T₃ 4.75 13.2 11.7 2.47 5.75 43.7T₄ 2.47 10.1 15.0 3.05 3.77 41.2C 4.55 4.35 10.2 7.10 6.75 20.7SEM ± 0.2035 0.1211 0.639 0.5276 0.6807 2.177CD @ 5% 0.3571 0.2110 1.1204 0.8904 1.1934 3.8172The data were analysed statistically with the help of IBM SPSS 20 statistical package.  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTThe Ph.D. scholar is grateful to UGC, New Delhi, for providing fi-nancial assistance  as Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship to carry out the research work.

Influence of Microbial Enriched Vermicompost on the Growth and Nutrient Content of Amaranthus Cruentus L.

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Influence of Microbial Enriched Vermicompost on the Growth and Nutrient Content of Amaranthus Cruentus L.

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