Abstract

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of integrated nutrient management on nutrient uptake postharvest soil nutrient availability and nutrient balance of sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum) at ICAR - Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru during Kharif season of 2015 and 2016.There were nine treatments and three replication with Randomized complete block design. The results revealed that the maximum nutrient uptake in the main crop as N (155.67 and 113.19 kg ha-1), P (43.80 and 32.43 kg ha-1) and K (163.33 and 116.16 kg ha-1) Similarly, in ratoon (56.43 and 26.65 kg ha-1), (16.14 and 14.01 kg ha-1) and (55.65 and 39.27 kg ha-1) were reordered with application of both recommended FYM (10 t ha-1) and NPK (160:80:80 kg ha-1) during first and second year, respectively. Highest nitrogen (227 and 236.33 kg ha-1) and potassium (296.80 and 340.60 kg ha-1)availability in post-harvest soils was gained with application of FYM (10 t ha-1) + 100% recommended N through FYM + bio-fertilizer consortiai.e., T2 while, the application of 160:80:80 kg NPK ha-1 + FYM (10 t ha-1) i.e., T9 recorded the highest available phosphorus (42.31 and 58.15 kg ha-1) during 2015 and 2016, respectively. Also, T2 recorded the maximum gain of available nitrogen and potassium in soil (42.4 and 96.8 kg ha-1) in 2015.while the maximum gain of phosphorus was recorded in T9 as (14.3 kg ha-1). The results obtained from this study demonstrated that integrated nutrient management can maximize nutrient absorption as a result of increasing the soil fertility which reflected on nutrient balancesheet.