MORPHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL, BIOCHEMICAL AND YIELD RESPONSES OF WHEAT (TRITICUM AESTIVUM L.) TO VERMICOMPOST, SIMPLE COMPOST AND NP FERTILIZER APPLICATIONS

An experiment in the field was performed to assess the impacts of simple compost, vermicompost, and NP fertilizer application on the morpho-physiological, biochemical, and yield characteristics of wheat in order to optimize nutrient needs. All the estimation was performed relying on various parameters viz. plant height, leaf area, N, P, K contents of leaf, superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, membrane stability index, relative water contents, chlorophyll contents, photosynthetic rate, osmotic potential, water potential, canopy temperature, stomatal conductance, total tillers of crop, length of spike, per spike spikelets number, grains numbers per spike, weight of 1000 grains, economic yield, biological yield and harvest index of wheat. The vermicompost application alone increased growth and productivity, but combining vermicompost with chemical fertilizer is highly desirable for wheat production. It was concluded from this study that 50% vermicompost (produced from FYM, rice and wheat straw) mixed with 50% recommended fertilizers showed excellent results. While, 25% vermicompost (produced from rice straw, wheat straw and cow dung) and 25% compost (produced from cow manure, rice straw and wheat straw) mixed with 50% recommended fertilizers showed intermediate results whereas, compost (produced from cow manure, rice straw and wheat straw) and control (recommended fertilizers) showed minimum results in wheat crop and soil fertility decreased in T0 treatment.