Assessment of soil fertility vis-à-vis yield in mango cvs Dashehari and Lucknow safeda under organic farming

Abstract

Developing advanced technologies through organic farming is of national importance. Keeping this in view, organic farming technologies for producing mango cvs Dashehari and Lucknow Safeda was initiated at R B Road campus, Telibagh, Lucknow, UP during 2021 to 2022. Soil fertility i.e. soil organic carbon, DTPA extractable Zn, Cu, Fe, soil available P, K, Ca at 0 to 30 and 30 to 60 cm soil depth was assessed. Data suggested that status of soil organic carbon was 0.53±0.14 and 0.47±0.13 per cent in Dashehari orchard while in Lucknow Safeda, values of 0.56±0.02 and 0.51±0.04 per cent were recorded at 0 to 30 and 30 to 60 cm soil depths. Soil available P and K was 22.20±7.66, 21.10±2.03; 24.75±4.83, 21.25±5.25 ppm and 122.50±13.30, 122.14±11.37; 176.14±14.49, 172.61±27.17 ppm respectively at 0-30 and 30-60 cm depths. Soil Zn, Cu and Fe contents were found in sufficient ranges; 0.76±0.28, 0.72±0.26; 1.02±0.24, 0.84±0.26 ppm Zn; 3.40±1.44, 3.37±0.92; 5.08±1.59, 3.88±2.57 ppm Cu and 4.71±4.17, 3.41±2.13; 4.49±0.81, 3.29±1.43 ppm Fe in Dashehari and Lucknow Safeda orchard soils at upper and lower soil depth were recorded, respectively. Natural farming practices of mulching, spraying jeevamrit on soil, cow urine, amrit pani and vermiwash, neem oil on trees, use of non-chemical IPM tools for pest management etc. were performed systematically. Yield variability of 62 to 147 kg tree-1 in Dashehari and 56 to 90 kg tree-1 in Lucknow Safeda was observed. Results were encouraging to improve the yield harvesting in mango orchards under natural farming practices.