Aim: To evaluate the efficacy of different organic substrates on quantitative and qualitative morphological traits of freshwater ornamental aquatic plant, waterwort (Elatine gratiloides).
Place and Duration of Study: Ornamental Fish and Aquatic Plant Unit, Department of Aquaculture, College of Fisheries, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University Ludhiana (Punjab), India, from 11th April 2016 to 10th September 2016.
Methodology: An experiment was designed as per the principles of completely randomized block design with five treatments viz., control (T0) – without any manure, only soil/sand mixture (2:1), while vermi compost (T1), poultry manure (T2), cattle manure (T3) and goat manure (T4) @ 2% in triplicate in the mud pots of 3.5 L capacities.
Results: From the performance of waterwort with respect to different organic manures, it was observed that, there was considerable increase in plant biomass, total plant length, number of leaf and runners containing high nitrogen content. Among all treatments, poultry manure (T2) illustrated superior results and showed significant difference among the treatments, except for the cattle manure (T3).
Conclusion: Due to the easy availability of cattle manure in local market at affordable price compared with poultry manure; it is recommended that application of cattle manure @ 2% with soil/sand mixture (2:1) helps to increase plant biomass along with other parameters including plant length, number of leaves, number of runners with high nutrient value in terms of nitrogen content for culture and propagation of ornamental aquatic plant waterwort.
Author(s) Details
Dr. Sachin Onkar Khairnar
Department of Aquaculture, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, Punjab-141004, India.
Dr. Vaneet Inder Kaur
Department of Aquaculture, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, Punjab-141004, India.
Dr. Abhed Pandey
Department of Aquaculture, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, Punjab-141004, India.
Dr. Sandeep Sharma
Department of Soil Science, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab-141004, India.
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