Abstract

From ancient times until the present, the effective utilization of organic fertilizer has been an important part of agriculture. Today, the use of organic fertilizer is considered an important strategy in the effort to preserve the global environment. In addition to the major nutrient elements, manure contains several trace elements required by the crop and a large amount of organic matter needed for soil improvement. The main objective of this research was to study the influence of different sources of organic manure on vegetative growth of lettuce. For this purpose, a field experiment was planned and executed during 2022-2023 at Horticulture Research Block of Department of Horticulture, School of Agriculture Sciences, Shri Guru Ram Rai University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India. The experiment was conducted in a randomized block design (RBD) replicated thrice with ten treatments involving nine organic fertilizers and a control treatment. The treatments were viz. T1 (control), T2 (FYM@20t/), T3 (Vermicompost@5t/ ha), T4 (Jeevamrutha@100%), T5 (Biostimulant @3%), T6 (FYM @20t/ha + Vermicompost@5t/ha), T7 (Vermicompost@5t/ha + Jeevamrutha@100%), T8 (FYM@20/ha + Biostimulant@3%), T9 (FYM@10t/ha + Vermicompost@2.5t/ha + Jeevamrutha @50% + Biostimulant @1.5%) and T10 (FYM @ 20t/ha + Vermicompost @ 5t/ha + Jeevamrutha @100% + Biostimulant @3%). Different growth parameters were recorded and statistically analyzed. The results revealed that treatment T6 (FYM @20t/ha + VC @5t/ha) recorded maximum plant height (14.80cm), leaf width (15.12cm), fresh weight of plant (262.73g), dry weight of plant (31.76g), diameter of plant (15.36cm) and root length (5.63). On the other hand, significant differences were also noted on the fresh weight of leaf (6.42g), dry weight of leaf (1.93g) and root diameter (1.66cm).

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