Microbial population and soil health under organic cotton production system

A field experiment was carried out at MARS, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad during Kharif, 2010 -11 and 2011-12 to study the “Nutrient management options for sustainable organic cotton production” The results of the two years pooled data revealed integrated application of EC (1/3) + VC (1/3) + gliricidia GLM (1/3) equivalent to RDF with foliar spray of panchagavya @ 5% recorded significantly available soil N, P2O5 and K2O (284, 29.7, 330 kg ha-1 , respectively), soil organic carbon (5.7 g kg-1 , respectively), bacteria (71.63 cfuX106 /g of soil), fungi (23.71 cfuX103 /g of soil), actinomycetes (37.32 cfuX102 /g of soil), N2-fixers (34.55cfuX103 /g of soil), P-solubilizer (27.1 cfuX103 /g of soil), phosphatase (24.52µg pnpTPF/g of soil/hr) and dehydrogenase enzyme activity (10.88 µg TPF/g of soil/day) and soil respiration rate (10.95 mg of CO2/hr/100 g soil) over FYM @ 5 t ha-1 + RDF.