Yield of small cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum M) variety PV1 as influenced by levels of nutrients and neem cake under rain fed condition in southern western ghats, India.

his paper seeks to understand the influence of different levels of fertilizer nutrients on annual yield of cardamom in Cardamom Hill Reserves (CHR) under rain fed situation. Field experiment conducted at CRS, Pampadumpara during 1994-2002 on nutrient levels with sources revealed that increasing the levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium had increased the yields of cardamom up to 125: 125: 200 kg ha-1. Application of fertilizer nutrients at the present level of recommendation (75: 75: 150 kg NPK ha-1 yr-1) in the form of urea, single super phosphate and muriate of potash along with 0.5 kg neem cake per plant had not increased the yield significantly over the control. Application of fertilizer nutrients at the rate of 125: 125: 200 kg ha-1 yr-1in two splits (just before and after summer monsoon) increased the yield significantly under Pampadumpara rainfall climatology. Among N, P and K, it appears that K is the most important as indicated by a larger absolute value than that of N and P. Therefore application of fertilizer K is a must to increase the cardamom yield in CHR system. However, rainfall during summer months and number of rainy days had pronounced effect on the production of cardamom. Among rainy seasons (SWM, NEM and SR), SR played significant role in increasing the cardamom yield. Higher than the average SR (366mm) followed by SWM (1162mm) found to influence the yield significantly. The reason for the higher yield by summer rainfall could be due to increased growing season soil moisture which is essential for the growth and panicle initiation and subsequent development of flowers and capsule setting. The recent all India droughts have very little influence on the rainfall climatology of cardamom hill reserves during the period of South West monsoon and therefore the yield was not affected by all India droughts but the summer months? rainfall and its distribution. REFERENCES Goswami, N.N. 1998. Some thoughts on the concept, relevance and feasibility of IPNS under Indian conditions. In Integrated Plant Nutrient Supply system for sustainable productivity. Acharya C L et al. (ed). Indian Institute of soil science, Bhopal. pp. 3-9. Jackson, M.L. 1973. Soil chemical analysis. Prentice Hall, Inc., USA. Juo, A.S. R. and Wilding, L.P. 1996. Soils of the low land forest of the West and Central Africa. In Essays on the ecology of the Guinea-Congo rainforest, Proceedings Royal Society of Edinburgh. Vol. 104B, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. pp. 15-26 Kerala Agricultural University (1996) Package of Practices of crops. Kerala Agricultural University press, Thrissur, Kerala, India Korikanthimath, V.S. , Hiremath, G.M. and Hosmani, M.M. (2000). Requirement of labour in the mixed cropping system of coconut and cardamom and its relationship with productivity levels. Crop Research 20, 520- 524. Korikanthimath, V.S. 1989. Annual Report. National Research Center for Spices (NRCS), Calicut. pp.33-34. Lui, X. 1999. Perspective of food security in China. Major technical changes. In World food security and crop production technologies tomorrow. (ed) Horic, T. , Geng, S. , Imamura, T and Suiraiwa, T. , Kyoto University, Kyoto. pp. 41-47. Moench, M. 1991. Soil erosion under a successional agro-forestry sequence: A case study from Idukki District, Kerala, India. Agro forestry systems. 15, 31-50. Murayama, N.1982. Conquest of Law of diminishing returns. Yokendo, Tokyo. 139-186. Murugan, M. , Miniraj, N. and Carmelrani, J. 2000. Changes in climatic elements and their impact on production of cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum M) in the cardamom hill reserves of Idukki district, Kerala. J. Spices and Aromatic Crops: 9, 157-160. Murugan, M. , Josephrajkumar, A. , Sheela, B. , Vasanthakumar, K. and Ambikadevi, K. 2005. Essential oil profile of elite small cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum M.) accessions and their interaction with thrips (Sciothrips Murugan et al., 25 cardamomi Ramk.) infestation. Indian Perfumer. 49, 219-223. Panse, V.G. and Sukhatme, P.V. 1967. Statistical methods for agricultural workers, ICAR Publications, New Delhi. Saith, N and Slingo, J. 2006. The role of the Madden-Julian Oscillation in the El Nino and Indian drought of 2002 Int.J. Climatol. 26, 1361-1378. Sanchez P.A. 1976. Properties and management of soils in the tropics. John Wiley and Sons, New York, USA. Sunderashwar, P.V. , Morris, J.T. , Koepfler, E.K. and FornWalt, B. 2003. Phosphorous limitation of coastal ecosystem processes. Science 299, 563-565. Swaroop, A. and Ganeshamurthy, A.N. 1998. Emerging nutrient deficiencies in intensive cropping systems and their remedial measures. Fertliser news 43, 37-50. Van Wabeke, A. 1991. Soils of the Tropics: Properties and Appraisal. McGraw-Hill, New York, USA.