Studies of organic nutritional management on growth, yield and economics of cabbage under subtropical conditions of Jammu

To find out the response of cabbage to organic nutritional management, involving both organic manures and biofertilizers, an experiment was carried out at Vegetable Experimental Farm, Division of Vegetable Science and Floriculture, SKUAST-J. Six organic manures like FYM, vermicompost, poultry manure, mustard cake, neem cake, organic fertilizer and two biofertilizers Azotobacter and phosphorus solublizing bacteria, applied at the rate equivalent to the amount of nitrogen supplied by chemical fertilizers, were tried in the study. The experiment thus comprised of 15 treatments laid out in RBD with 3 replications. Data clearly indicated that chemical fertilizers influenced all the growth parameters of cabbage significantly as compared to organic treatments. Remarkable results in various growth parameters like plant spread (58.66 cm), (17.08 cm), head width (16.67 cm); yield parameters like gross head weight (3366.67 gm), net head weight (1400.00 gm) and yield/ha (483.95q) was recorded by the application of chemical fertilizers along with FYM (control). Thus, it concluded that conventional approach of cabbage cultivation involving chemical fertilization in combination with FYM is best for getting higher yield vis-a-vis net returns. However, under organic nutritional management, neem cake@ 3.4t/ha along with seedling dip of phosphorus solublizing bacteria for half an hour proved best for increasing both growth and yield parameters and also net returns in terms of cost benefit ratio.