Abstract

Evaluation of Plant Yield, Macro and Micronutrients Concentration in Spinach (Spinacia Oleracea L.) Plant Tissue as Well as in Soil Amended With Hair as Fertilizer

Author(s): Suruchi Gupta and Anshumala Sharma

To meet the requirement of ever increasing population, modern agricultural practices rely heavily on artificial or chemical fertilizers, which later on creates critical pollution problems. To avoid the use of these chemical fertilizers, number of waste material and by products (such as animal manure, municipal solid waste compost and sewage sludge) are used currently in agricultural crop production. An attempt is made in this work by the use of uncomposted hair waste as nutrient source for high value plants and to evaluate the effect of these waste materials on soil microbial community. In the Pot experiment, the addition of uncomposted hair waste to soil increased yield in Spinach. Addition of hair waste also increased NH4-N and NO3-N in soil, increased total N concentration in plant tissue and stimulated soil microbial biomass. It`s addition also increased conc. of N, S, Ca, Na, Fe, Cu, Zn and Mn in soil as well as in plant tissue. Our result suggest that the addition of 13.33 g/Kg or 29866.66 Kg/ha of hair is sufficient for Spinach crop and can support at least 2-3 harvest of crops, without the addition of other fertilizers.