Effect of integrated nutrient management on plant growth, yield and quality of papaya (Carica papaya L.) cv. red lady

Continuous use of chemical fertilizers poses soil health issues, whereas organic manures alone are not able to fulfil the requirements of highly nutrient-demanding crops. Indian soils are deficient in NPS, leading to low yield potential, so the only option left is to concentrate on alternate strategies like Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) to maintain the soil fertility. In this view, research was carried out to study the effect of integrated nutrient management on plant growth, yield and quality of papaya (Carica papaya L.) cv. Red Lady under Punjab conditions. The main objectives of this study were to adopt organic manures instead of relying only on chemical fertilizers or to find the appropriate combination of organic manures along with chemical and bio-fertilizers. The dose of chemical fertilizers was kept constant (50% for all treatments), whereas different concentrations of organic manures and bio-fertilizers were added. Among all the treatments, the application of 50% NPK + 20 kg FYM + 100 g Azospirillum + 100 g PSB resulted in the maximum plant height, stem girth, fruit length, fruit width, and yield. Likewise, all the fruit quality parameters such as TSS, firmness, total sugars, reducing sugars, non-reducing sugars and ascorbic acid were also improved by the same treatment. Hence, integrated nutrient management significantly improved the vegetative growth, yield and quality of papaya cv. Red Lady when 20 kg of FYM and 100g of Azospirillum were applied along with 50% NPK.