Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT OF BRAHMI (BACOPA MONNIERI L.) CULTIVARS IN SOIL AND COMPARISON WITH HYDROPONICALLY GROWN PLANTS FOR BETTER HERBAGE YIELD

Agumjot Kaur, Gurbax Singh Chhina and Puneet Kaur

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during kharif season of 2019-20 at Department of Agriculture, Khalsa College, Amritsar. It consisted of 10 treatment combinations which included two cultivars (CIM-Jagriti and Subodhak) and five nutrient management, viz. Vermicompost 10 t ha-1, FYM 20 t ha-1, Vermicompost 5 t ha-1+ FYM 10 t ha-1, Recommended dose of NPK fertilizers 100: 60: 50 kg ha-1 and Hydroponics (half-strength Hoagland solution). The results revealed that cv. Subodhak had produced more yield than cv. CIM-Jagriti but bacoside-A content was higher in the latter (16 percent higher). Among nutrient management, Brahmi grown in hydroponics (half-strength Hoagland solution) had significantly higher growth and yield attributes (viz. main shoot length, number of shoots, number of leaves, leaf area, fresh and dry weight) while FYM 20 t ha-1 recorded lowest growth and yield. Additionally, hydroponically grown brahmi had 7.5 percent more bacoside-A content than soil grown brahmi.