Agricultural Science Digest

Floriculture has emerged as a thriving agribusiness, enhancing land productivity, generating diverse employment opportunities from cultivation fields to retail outlets and ultimately raising the incomes of farmers and business owners. Among the commercially cultivated loose flowers worldwide, the marigold (Tagetes spp.), belonging to the Asteraceae family, holds significant importance. One of the main factors influencing marigold development and yield among the many agro-techniques is nutrition. Soil testing offers essential insights into the nutrient content of the soil and identifies any imbalances, while fertilizer recommendations are designed to address these imbalances based on the crop's specific requirements. The targeted yield approach has proven effective by promoting balanced fertilization that accounts for both the soil's nutrient status and the crop's needs. While fertilizer prescription equations have been developed for vegetable crops such as pumpkin, okra, tomato and chili under Odisha's soil conditions, similar equations have not been established for flower crops.

A total of 24 treatment combinations were designed by using four levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (0, 60, 80 and 100 kg/ha) with two levels of farmyard manure (5 and 10 tonnes/ha) and a control treatment with no fertilizer application.

Data from all 24 plots of the African marigold variety BM-2 were collected for each season and analyzed. The nutrient requirements to produce one quintal of marigold flowers are approximately 0.55 kg of nitrogen, 0.09 kg of phosphorus and 0.56 kg of potassium. The contributions to the required nutrients come from soil (23.07%, 48.01% and 40.01% for N, P and K, respectively), fertilizer (54.92%, 17.51% and 87.40% for N, P and K, respectively) and farmyard manure (27.55%, 8.21% and 7.82% for N, P and K, respectively), to achieve the targeted yield.