Effect of Panchakavya on Soil Enzyme Activity in Ashwagandha.

ABSTRACT

The study was carried out to investigate the effect of panchakavya made from cow (PK-C) and buffalo (PK-B) products on urease and dehydrogenase activity and root yield of Ashwagandha and it revealed that soil application of PK-C @ 15% recorded the highest urease activity at both the stages of crop (85.24, 44.56 at flowering and harvest during rabi 2007-08 and 81.07, 35.50 μg of NH4 + released g-1 soil h-1 at flowering and harvest in kharif 2008). The highest dehydrogenase activity also noticed in the same treatment (91.05, 49.05 μg of TPF g-1 soil day-1 at flowering, harvest during rabi 2007-08 and 81.00,, 39.64 μg of TPF g-1 soil day-1 at flowering, harvest in kharif 2008) during both the years. The highest dry root yield was recorded with PK - C @ 5% - 4 sprays (290 and 280 kg ha-1 during both the years, respectively).