Soil moisture content and fertility status of soil through intercropping of medicinal crops in guava orchard of Northern India

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at the well-established nine year old guava orchard of Horticultural Research Farm, Khalsa College, Amritsar during 2019-20 and 2020-21, to investigate the effect of medicinal plants on soil physico-chemical properties of guava orchard at two depths (i.e. 0-15 and 15-30cm). The comprising of seven treatments such as T1: Guava+Aloe vera, T2: Guava+Brahmi, T3: Guava+Lemongrass, T4: Guava+Mentha, T5: Guava+Stevia, T6: Guava+Turmeric and T7: Guava sole. The experimental field soil was sandy loam, slightly alkaline soil reaction with medium range of organic carbon (OC) and available nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). The results indicate that soil pH and EC were nonsignificantly affected under different guava based intercropping system. Higher soil moisture content was recorded with brahmi and mentha intercrops in orchard. The sole treatments (T7) had higher bulk density values among all other treatments. Soil porosity had significantly higher while the intercropping of brahmi (50.06%) under fruit based system. The organic carbon content of orchard soil found significant improved from both depths 0-15 and 15-30cm due to intercropping as comparison to guava sole. The availability of macronutrients (N, P and K) were enhanced by all the intercropping system of guava orchard. Significantly maximum (222.57 and 209.86 kg ha -1 ) available N was recorded in T4 (Guava+Mentha) and the lowest (208.41 and 194.60 kg ha -1 ) available nitrogen was found in T7 (Guava sole) treatment within soil depths of 0-15 and 15-30 cm. Similarly, the available P and K status of soil was recorded highest when medicinal crops were grown under guava based intercropping as compared to guava sole.