Abstract:
Farmers tend to use inorganic fertilizers in excess amount for getting high yield. Excess application
of inorganic fertilizer is detrimental. In this background a study was undertaken to formulate a low-
cost organic fertilizer and examine the effectiveness of Spirulina, Azolla and formulated organic
fertilizer (FOF) on germination and seedling vigor of Curry Chilli, Green Chilli, Water spinach and
Sugar graze and to evaluate the effect of FOF on growth and yield of Sugar graze. The organic
fertilizer was formulated based on nutrient analysis, using dry powders of Spirulina, Azolla, and three
underutilized resources, namely Palmyrah leaf, Coconut leaf and Banana pseudostem. The
germination experiment was carried out with three replicates in Complete randomized design (CRD)
with five treatments namely T1 - FOF, T2 - dry Azolla powder, T3 - dry Spirulina powder, T4 - live
Spirulina culture and T5 - Control (Distilled water) . A pot experiment was conducted in net house to
find the response of Sugar graze for different fertilizer combinations. Treatments were T1 - control
(no fertilizer), T2- 100% inorganic (NPK-2.7, 1.8, 0.9 g/pot ), T3 - 50% inorganic(NPK-1.35, 0.9,
0.45 g/pot), T4 - 100% organic (cattle manure - 540 g/pot), T5 - 50% organic (cattle manure - 270
g/pot), T6 - 50% inorganic (NPK-1.35, 0.9, 0.45 g/pot) + 270 g FOF and T7 - 50% organic (cattle
manure - 270 g/pot) + 270 g FOF. Design was CRD with two replicates. Nutrient uptake of the
plants, plant height and yield were measured. The recorded data were statistically analysed using
Analysis of Variance and treatment means were compared using Duncan‟s multiple range test. Result
showed that soaking with Spirulina, Azolla and FOF improves the germination (5 -15%) and seedling
vigour (12-53%) compared to control in all selected seeds. T6 (50% inorganic + FOF) and T2 (100%
inorganic) recorded the same average value in height (210 cm), which was the highest among
treatments. T4 (100% organic) recorded the highest value in potassium (34.34 g/plant) uptake. T7
(50% organic + FOF) recorded the highest values in nitrogen (0.82 g/plant) and phosphorous (2.18
g/plant) uptake and fresh biomass yield (158 g/plant) and dry biomass yield (41 g/plant). This finding
indicates that by substituting 50% of organic or inorganic fertilizer with FOF, either similar or higher
performance of sugar graze compared to 100% organic or inorganic treatments can be obtained.
Keywords: Azolla; Formulated organic fertilizer; Seed vigour; Spirulina; Sugar graze
