Effect of Saline Water Irrigation and Organic Amendments on the Nutrient Availability, Microbial Population, Enzyme Activity and Yield of Brinjal in Coastal Saline Soil

A pot experiment was carried out in the department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Annamalai University during March–July 2017, to study the effect of saline water irrigation and organic amendments on the nutrient availability, microbial population, enzyme activities and yield of brinjal in coastal saline soil. The texture of the soil was sandy and taxonomically classified as Typic Udipsamments with pH-8.38, EC-2.85 dS m-1 and represented low status of organic carbon (2.31 g kg-1). The soil had low alkaline KMnO4-N (134.56 kg ha-1), low in Olsen- P (9.43 kg ha-1) and medium in NH4OAc-K (159.35 kg ha-1). The fifteen treatments consisted of three levels of saline water viz., S0–Control (Bore well water), S1-Saline water 1 (EC-3 & SAR-4) and S2-Saline water 2 (EC-3 & SAR-6) and four different sources of organic amenments viz., O1-Control, O2-Farm yard manure (FYM), O3–Composted Calotropis (CCT) and O4–Composted coirpith (CCP). The experiment was laid out in a Factorial Completely Randomized Design (FCRD) with three replications using selected saline tolerance brinjal variety CO-2 as test crop. The results revealed that the combined application of composted coirpith @ 12.5 t ha-1 with bore well water irrigated treatment (S1O4) recorded the highest soil nutrient availability and yield of brinjal.