Vol. 12, Issue 3 (2023)

Author(s):
Ravneet Kaur Dhindsa, Uday Sharma, Anjali Verma and Jagriti Thakur

Abstract:
The study was conducted at three different locations viz. Solan, pot culture (cv. Starking Delicious), Seobagh, Kullu (cv. Vance Delicious) and Rohru, Shimla (cv. Red Chief) during 2015-16 and 2016-17 with 14 treatments comprising different sources including urea (soil and foliar) and liming, calcium nitrate, calcium cyan amide, 12:32:16, 15:15:15 and their combinations replicated thrice in a RBD under field conditions and CRD under container grown experiment. The different sources were given on N equivalence basis depending upon the age of the plants. In Starking Delicious apple plants grown in containers the highest values of phosphatase were noticed under the application of calcium nitrate (7.93 and 7.83 µmoles of p-nitrophenol (g soil) ^-1 hr^-1 in 2016 and 2017 respectively); dehydrogenase was highest under application of calcium nitrate + urea + liming i.e. 4.28 and 4.32 mg TPF (g soil) ^-1 during 2016 and 2017, respectively; and urease enzyme was maximum (0.47 µg (NH4)⁺ (g soil) ^-1 hr^-1) in urea + liming (In March) in 2016 and under calcium nitrate + urea + liming (0.45 µg (NH4)+ (g soil) ^-1 hr^-1) in 2017. Total microbial count was highest under calcium nitrate + urea + liming i.e. 139.05 × 10⁵ and 143.05 × 10⁵cfu g^-1 soil in 2016 and 2017 respectively. At Seobagh highest total microbial count was recorded under calcium nitrate + urea + liming (133.27 × 10⁵ and 138.05 × 105cfu g^-1 soil in 2016 and 2017 respectively) and also at Rohru it was highest under calcium nitrate + urea + liming (145.30 × 10⁵ and 138.14 × 105cfu g^-1 soil in 2016 and 2017 respectively).