Nutrient constraints diagnosis and their management for improved yield and quality in seed spices: Emerging issues

Seed spices respond well to individual or combined application on nutrients , including manures for both yield and quality including post-harvest life. In most pockets of Rajasthan and north Gujarat, response of K to seed spices is not so conspicuous. For cumins, soil conditions are more important than mere plant available nutrients. While, fenugreek is widely adopted to varying soil moisture and nutrients supply levels. On the other hand , high yielding varieties of coriander do not perform well in poor fertile soils of Rajasthan, particularly if the soils have low N-supply level. Nutrient uptake in fennel continues even after senescence of crop, considering herbaceous perennial nature of crop. Micronutrients and sulphur play a significant role for improvement in quality and yield seed spices. The maximum nutrients are removed by seed spices like celery, fennel and coriander ; while minimum by cumin , showing a wide variability in nutrient response of seed spices. An application of bio-fertilizers (symbiotic and nonsymbiotic) in seed spices was observed highly beneficial with and without organic manures. Rhizobium inoculants produced considerably good yield in fenugreek, whereas Azospirillum and/or Azotobacter responded significantly in other seed spices crops. In some of these crops, inoculation with PSB and VAM also produced encouraging response on both yield and quality. Under integrated nutrient management system, application of 50-75 per cent recommended dose of fertilizers and 25-50 per cent through organic or along with bio-fertilizers was considered best combination for higher yield and quality as compared to exclusive application of 100% recommended dose of inorganic fertilizers or organics. However, the magnitude of crop response varied with soil type, climate, variety and other management practices.