RESPONSE OF CHILI TO EARTHWORMS UNDER INDIGO (Indigofera tinctoria L.) GREEN MANURING

Abstract

A pot experiment was conducted inside the net house of Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University (HSTU), Dinajpur during the period of February to October, 2023 to study the response of chili with earthworms under indigo (Indigofera tinctoria) green manuring. In this experiment, indigo was used as green manuring crop and chili as a test crop. The experiment was laid out in a Complete Randomized Design (CRD) having nine treatments with four replications viz T1 = Control (no indigo green manuring and no earthworms), T2 = No indigo green manuring + 4 number of earthworms, T3 = Indigo green manuring + 4 number of earthworms, T4 = Indigo green manuring + 6 number of earthworms, T5 = ¼ cowdung + 4 number of earthworms, T6 = ¼ cowdung + 6 number of earthworms, T7 = Indigo green manuring + ¼ cowdung + 4 number of earthworms, T8 = Indigo green manuring + ¼ cowdung + 6 number of earthworms, T9 = Indigo green manuring + ¼ cowdung + 8 number of earthworms. Incorporation of indigo green manure influences the activities of earthworms that resulted in a considerable reflection on the growth and yield contributing characters of chili and also nutrient status of soil. The highest values of different parameters such as plant height (36.38, 46.25 and 52.50 cm at 20, 40 days after transplanting (DAT) and harvesting, respectively), number of leaves (48 and 120 plant-1 at 20 and 40 DAT, respectively), fresh shoot weight (34.56 g plant-1), dry shoot weight (12.05 g plant-1), root length (29.63 cm), fresh root weight (0.975 g plant-1), fruit length (9.6 cm) and fruit diameter (9.48 cm), number of fruits (18 plant-1), weight of fruits (15.50 g plant-1), weight of earthworms at 60 days after addition (DAA) in soil (20.25 g pot-1), total N content in shoot and root (0.25% and 0.16%, respectively) were found in treatment T8, except the weight of earthworms at 30 DAA (8.75 g pot-1), number of earthworms at 60 DAA (96.75 pot-1), total N content in fruit (0.33%) all of which were found in T9 treatment. The lowest values of all the parameters were found at T1 treatment. Furthermore, the nutrients content in the treatments incorporated with indigo green manuring showed higher activities of earthworms in respect of number and weight than the treatments before incorporated with indigo green manuring. Therefore, the present study revealed that green manuring with indigo responded significantly in the population density and the activities of earthworms that influenced the growth and yield of chili.