Effect of Organic Manure and Inorganic Fertilizer on the Quality of Eggplant Cultivars

Abstract

Eggplant being a long summer vegetable crop, needs a continuous amount of nutrients for the production of higher yield and quality. Therefore, a field experiment was undertaken to study the qualitative attributes of eggplant cultivars as affected by organic manure and inorganic fertilization. A Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with split plot arrangement was adopted having eight treatments and replicated thrice. Organic manure (Farm Yard Manure, Poultry Manure, Spent Mushroom Compost at 25:5:10 tons ha^-1) and Inorganic fertilizers (NPK at 100:50:50 kg ha^-1) were subjected to the main plots while cultivars (Namli-F1, Black Boy-F1, BSS-513 and Meiyinqienquan) were assigned to the subplots. Obtained results revealed that the quality of all the cultivars were significantly (p≤0.05) affected by the growing regimes. Cultivar Namli-F1 produced early fruiting, maximum yield plot^-1, fruit firmness and percent titratable acidity. Highest fruit length and pH were observed in cultivar Black boy F1. BSS-513 had maximum fruit length. While cultivar Meiyinqienquan had maximum days to 50 % fruiting, fruit diameter and volume. Between the growing condition, early fruiting, maximum fruit length, diameter, volume and yield plot^-1 were detected in plants grown under organic regime. No significant differences were observed in fruit firmness, pH and percent titratable acidity of eggplant fruits under fertilization regimes. Present studies concluded that cultivar Namli-F1 and Meiyinqienquan produced better quality under the organic fertilization, but to reduce cost of production Namli-F1 is recommended to grow.

Keywords: Eggplant cultivars, growing conditions, fruit firmness, pH, percent titratable acidity, Quality.