Influence of Organics and Levels of NPK on Yield and Major Nutrients Uptake of Groundnut in Coastal Sandy Oil

A field experiment was conducted in a farmer’s field at Ponnanthittu coastal village, near Chidambaram during Dec-Mar 2006, to find out the influence of organics and NPK levels on the yield and nutrient uptake by groundnut in coastal sandy soil. Texturally, the experimental soil was sandy with initial soil characteristics (0-15 cm layer) of the experimental site were, pH-8.39 and EC-1.61 dS mol. The soil registered low organic carbon status of 0.27%, 128.32 kg ha^-1 of alkaline KMnO₄-N; 10.23 kg ha^-1 of Olsen-P and 196.74 kg ha^-1 of NH₄OAc-K, respectively. The treatments consisted of different levels of NPK viz., A₁-Control; A₂-100% NPK; A₃-125% NPK and A₄-150% NPK as factor A and different sources of organics viz., B₁-Control, B₂-Composted coirpith @ 12.5 t ha^-1 and B₃-Pressmud @ 12.5 t ha^-1 as factor B. The above treatments were arranged in a Factorial Randomized Block Design (FRBD) with three replications and tested with groundnut var. VRl 2. The results of the study indicated that the combined application of 150% NPK along with composted coirpith @12.5 t ha^-1 was significantly superior in increasing the yield and nutrients uptake by groundnut.