Man made artificial fertilizers is turning its negative facet to farmers slowly destroying the fertility of soil and decreasing the quality of the produce. This has set an alarming situation for farmer and allied sectors of agriculture. In recent decade, Organic farming gaining impetus due to realization of inherent advantages in sustaining crop production and also in maintaining dynamics soil nutrients. Farmers and consumers have started their races towards organic produce which fetch them high income and provide safe produce for consumption, respectively. Therefore, it is necessary to use bio products like panchagavya and egg amino acid for the production of chemical residue free food crops particularly the vegetables as they have been consumed raw as salad etc. Wide range of biostimulants is available in market as well as produced by the farmers on farm and applied to the crops in liquid formulation to boost the crop growth and yield (Msibi et al.,2013). They have been used as growth promoters and nutrients supplements in organic farming to boost crop production.Among these organic preparations, panchagavya has been scientifically evaluated for its physical, chemical and biological properties as well as effect on growth and development of many crops . But in case of egg amino acid, research findings on its growth effects on crops could be more manageable. The egg amino acid is liquid organic manure made from egg and other ingredients. Egg amino acid is of great value to both plants and microorganisms in their growth, because it contains various nutrients and types of amino acids. Egg white is a normal source of proteins of famed nutritional and biological advantages. Enzymatic hydrolysis is a particular technique to transform native protein to protein (Abdel-Hamid et al., 2016). Protein hydrolysates are mix of polypeptides, oligopeptides and amino acids. The last group consists of free amino acids and polypeptides obtained through chemical and/or enzymatic hydrolysis of agro industrial by-products from animal or plant sources or from dedicated biomass crops (Gopal lal Choudhary et al., 2017).  Shifts from conventional farming to organic farming causes nutrient deficiency in crops due to soil nutrient imbalance, which in in turn affects the growth and yield of crops. Besides, the effect of egg amino acid on crop growth and yield was not evaluated scientifically. Hence the present study investigated the effect of biostimulant products on soil nutrients and crop yield of greens to optimize the egg amino acid application rate.

Site Description

     A field experiment was conducted at Sirumugai farmers field,  Coimbatore district  to study the effect of egg amino acid and panchagavya as foliar application to increase the growth and yield of greens (palak and amaranthus ) during 2023. The experimental soil was sandy clay loam.

The experiment was laid out in Randomized block design (RBD) with three replications and eight treatments viz.,  Absolute control (T₁), T₂- Recommended NPK, T₃- FYM 12.5 t/ha + 3 % panchagavya (15 DAS) + 0.5 % egg amino acid (30 DAS), T₄- FYM 12.5 t/ha + 3 % panchagavya (15 DAS) & 1.0 % egg amino acid (30 DAS), T₅- FYM 12.5 t/ha + 3 % panchagavya (15 DAS) & 1.5 % egg mino acid (30 DAS), T₇- FYM 12.5 t/ha +    3 %  panchagavya alone twice (15 & 30 DAS)  and T₈- FYM 12.5 t/ha 1 % egg amino acid alone twice (15 & 30 DAS). The experiment was tested greens sown on April  2023 and first picking was done in  June 2023.  Hybrid guru agro tech seed were  used for amaranthus and palak  .

Method of preparation:

 Preparation of Panchakavya

In a wide-mouthed vessel, 5 kg of Cow dung and 500 gm of Cow ghee were mixed thoroughly and kept for 3 days. After 3 days, the following ingredients were added and kept for 19 days with regular mixing both in morning and evening hours daily. On the 20th day, 20 liters of panchagavya were ready for use. The container was always kept covered with a mosquito net or cotton cloth.

Ingredients

1. Fresh cow’s urine –3 liters

2. Cow’s milk –2 liters

3. Cow’s curd –2 liters

4. Jaggery –500 gms

5. Water or sugarcane juice -3 liters

6. Ripe banana fruit -1 bunch (12 nos.)

7. Tender coconut water –3 liters

Preparation of Egg amino acid

Twenty numbers of ripened lemons were squeezed, and the juice was taken in a plastic container; then, 10 numbers of eggs were kept inside the lemon juice till the eggs were soaked completely for 10 days. After 10 days, eggs were smashed well and 250 g jaggery was added and kept for 10 days. The content was filtered after 10 days and the liquid portion was collected and stored in separate container for foliar spray. For spray treatment, respective percentage of panchakavya and egg aminoacid solution was made. After dilution, these solutions have to be filtered before being used for spraying. Solutions were sprayed at  15 ^thday and 30 ^th day (Winnie and Scaria, 2018)

Characterization of Panchakavya and Egg aminoacid

The samples prepared were analyzed for various nutrient parameters and the data has been presented in (Fig 1). Egg aminoacid contain   1.2 percent total nitrogen, 0.4 % total phosphorus and 0.6 % total potassium  and in panchakavya ,k total nitrogen content is 0.7 %, total phosphorus content is 0.2 % and  total potassium content is  0.5 %. The reason might be due to the  nutrients from bioinp

traditionally applied organic matter (Neff et al., 2003)

Available nitrogen of  soil (kg ha^-1)

The available nitrogen status of soil at harvest stage varied between 216 and 238 kg ha^-1in Palak and  212 and 257 kg ha^-1  in amaranthus due to different treatments (Table 1).   The different treatments tried had significant influence on the available nitrogen status of the soil.  The control (T₁) recorded lowest value (212kg ha^-1 in Palak and 257 kg ha^-1  in amaranthus).  Treatments T₆ received the FYM 12.5 t/ha + 3 % panchagavya (15 DAS) & 2.0 % egg  amino acid (30 DAS) recorded the highest (238 kg ha^-1 and 257 kg ha^-1).

Available Phosphorus of soil (kg ha^-1)

The results of the available phosphorus status of soil revealed that the different treatments tried in this experiment had a significant influence on it.  The control (T₁) recorded lowest value (12.33 kg ha^-1 in Palak and 11.91 kg ha^-1 in amaranthus ).  Treatments T₆ received the FYM 12.5 t/ha + 3 % Panchakavya (15 DAS) & 2.0 % egg  amino acid (30 DAS) recorded the highest (19.84kg ha^-1 and 18.45 kg ha^-1) .T₅ and T₇were on par with each other Table (1).

Table 1.       Effect of  biostimulant products  foliar application on Post Soil available major nutrient (kg ha^-1) status  of greens (Palak and amaranthus)

Available Potassium of soil (kg ha^-1)

The results of the available potassium status of soil revealed that the different treatments used in this experiment had a significant influence on it.  The control (T₁) recorded lowest value (215 kg ha^-1 in Palak and 220kg ha^-1 in  amaranthus).  Treatments T₆ received the FYM 12.5 t/ha + 3 % panchagavya (15 DAS) & 2.0 % egg  amino acid (30 DAS) recorded the highest (266  kg ha^-1 and 260 kg ha^-1) . Treatments T₅ and T₇ were on par with each other Table (1). The possible reasons might be because bioinput (egg amino acid and panchagavya)  product itself contains appreciable quantity of phosphorus in a readily available in ionic form. The organic acids and organic anions released during the decomposition of organic matter must have hastened the soil's biological properties and reduced the activity of phosphorus complexing agent to make phosphorus available to the crop (Somasundaram et al., 2020) .

Yield

      The highest yield  of greens s  was observed in treatment T₆ receiving FYM 12.5 t ha ^-1 + 3 % panchagavya (15 DAS) & 2.0 % egg  amino acid (30 DAS) (18.1 t ha^-1) in Palak and (9.3 t ha ^-1)  in amaranths that was significantly superior over control T₁ (11.6 t ha ^-1 in Palak  and 3.5 t ha ^-1 in amaranths) and the following treatments were on par with each other T₂, T₅ and T₄                                   (Fig 2 & Fig 3).The reasons might be due to the bioinput  products (palak and amaranths ) enhances the growth of plant there by photosynthetic area i.eleaf area, which ultimately increased the green leaf yield. Similar results were reported by Somasundarum, 2003 and Kanimozhi, 2003.  This could be attributed to the combined effect of inorganic nutrients and organic growth promoters which contains useful microorganisms, nitrogen, calcium, cytokinin, glucose, minerals etc. This might have triggered rapid cell division, proliferation and speedy growth and development of plants. Thus the plants grown with this treatment have produced maximum height, more number of leaves, higher leaf area resulting in production of high fresh weight of plant leading to production of more yield in this treatment. The results of present study are in accordance with those of Arjunan, 2005  in tomato crop.

Available nitrogen of  soil (kg ha^-1)

The available nitrogen status of soil at harvest stage varied between 216 and 238 kg ha^-1in Palak and  212 and 257 kg ha^-1  in amaranthus due to different treatments (Table 1).   The different treatments tried had significant influence on the available nitrogen status of the soil.  The control (T₁) recorded lowest value (212kg ha^-1 in Palak and 257 kg ha^-1  in amaranthus).  Treatments T₆ received the FYM 12.5 t/ha + 3 % panchagavya (15 DAS) & 2.0 % egg  amino acid (30 DAS) recorded the highest (238 kg ha^-1 and 257 kg ha^-1).

Available Phosphorus of soil (kg ha^-1)

The results of the available phosphorus status of soil revealed that the different treatments tried in this experiment had a significant influence on it.  The control (T₁) recorded lowest value (12.33 kg ha^-1 in Palak and 11.91 kg ha^-1 in amaranthus ).  Treatments T₆ received the FYM 12.5 t/ha + 3 % Panchakavya (15 DAS) & 2.0 % egg  amino acid (30 DAS) recorded the highest (19.84kg ha^-1 and 18.45 kg ha^-1) .T₅ and T₇were on par with each other Table (1)

Fig. 3 Effect of foliar application of biostimulant products (Egg aminoacid and Panchakavya) on plant growth parameters and Yield of amarathus

A research effort was undertaken to explore the possibility of using the Bio stimulant products  (egg aminoacid and panchagavya as foliar spray) for the cultivation of crops. From the study  it is observed that egg amino acids (EAA) serves as a promising organic spray for enhanced Palak and amaranthus growth and yield. organic sprays EAA and Panchagavya could be used as a valuable organic liquid fertilizer for better yield  and sustaining the soil health.