Abstract

An experiment was conducted to study effect of organic manures integrated with chemical and biofertilizers on growth and yield parameters of sunflower for three years at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore during kharif (June-September) season. Application of vermicompost at the rate of 2 t ha-1 recorded significantly higher yield (1070, 984 and 1229 kg ha-1 in 1994, 1995 and 1996 respectively) compared to farm yard manure and no manure. Application of 100 per cent recommended chemical fertilizers (NPK) resulted in significant increase in plant height, head diameter, 100 seed weight and seed yield over 50 per cent NPK and control. Among the biofertilizers, soil application of Vasicular Arbuscular Mycorrhizae (VAM) recorded higher seed yield over Phosphorus Solublising Bacteria (PSB) and control. Combined application of organic manures and chemical fertilizers significantly influenced the sunflower seed yield. Application of vermicompost with 100 per cent recommended NPK recorded the highest seed yield of 1374, 1287 and 1458 kg ha-1 in all the three years, respectively. Fifty per cent of recommended NPK along with vermicompost recorded higher seed yield than 100 per cent NPK with FYM.

Keywords: Sunflower, Integrated Nutrient Management. Organic manure, FYM, Biofertilizer, Vermicompost, VAM, PSB