Growth, yield and quality improvement of flax (Linum usitattisimum L.) grown under tarai region of Uttarakhand, India through integrated nutrient management practices

Abstract Establishment of efficient nutrient management practice is essential for optimising growth, yield and quality of fibre flax in the process of its domestication in India where the crop has been introduced recently with the release of country’s first ever fibre flax variety ‘JRF-2’ in 2015. The experiment was carried out for two years during winter seasons of 2016-17 and 2017-18 using various levels of recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF) (125, 100 and 75%) along with organic sources of nutrition includes vermicompost (VC) (2.5 and 5 Mg ha−1) and farm yard manure (FYM) (5 and 10 Mg ha−1) and their integration (75% RDF + 2.5 Mg ha−1 VC and 75% RDF + 5 Mg ha−1 FYM). The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with nine treatments replicated thrice at a silty clay loam soil of tarai, Uttarakhand, India which falls under soil order, Mollisol. The outcome of the experiment revealed significant effect of various nutrient management practices on the growth, yield and quality of flax crop. Integration of chemical fertilizer and organic manures resulted in considerable improvement of yield and quality of flax crop variety, JRF-2 in comparison with RDF or organic alone. The maximum values of growth, fibre yield and quality were recorded with the application of 75% RDF + 2.5 Mg ha−1 VC. Another integrated nutrient management practice i.e. 75% RDF + 5 Mg ha−1 FYM showed considerably higher fibre yield as well as quality of flax over RDF also. These are attributed to better nutrient supply and availability under integrated nutrient management practices than RDF or sole organic applications and their relationship with growth, fibre yield and quality parameters. The study also showed that the substitution of chemical fertilizer to the tune of almost 25% through organic sources of nutrition can be possible and this phenomenon would provide better soil nutrient status.