Organic manures Point Wise Notes For Competitive exam

ORGANIC MANURES

• Manures are plants and animal wastes that are used as sources of plant nutrients.

• Bulky organic manures contain small percentage of nutrients and they are applied in large quantities e.g., FYM, compost and green manure

• Farm yard manure refers to the decomposed mixture of dung and urine of farm animals along with litter and left over material from roughages or fodder fed to the cattle.

• FYM contains 0.5 % N – 0.2 % P2O5 – 0.5% K2O

• Cattle urine contains 1% N – 1.5% K2O

• Nitrogen present in urine in the form of urea which is subjected to volatilization losses.

• During storage nutrients are lost due to leaching and volatilization.

• Chemical preservatives like gypsum and superphosphate are added to reduce losses and enrich farm yard manure.

• There is positive correlation between N content in FYM and decomposing rate.

• Partially rotten farmyard manure has to be applied three to four weeks before sowing while well rotten manure can be applied immediately before sowing.

• The entire amount of nutrients present in farm yard manure is not available immediately.

• About 30 percent of nitrogen, 60 to 70 percent of phosphorus and 70 per cent of potassium are available to the first crop.

• A mass of rotted organic matter made from waste is called compost.

• Compost made from farm waste like sugarcane trash, paddy straw, weeds and other plants and other waste is called farm compost.

• Composition of farm compost is 0.5% N – 0.15% P2O5 – 0.5% K2O.

• Compost made from town refuses like night soil, street sweepings and dustbin refuse is called town compost.

• Night soil is human excreta, both solid and liquid.

• Night soil contains 5.5 % N – 4.0 % P2O5 -2.0% K2O.

• In the modern system of sanitation adopted in cities and towns, human excreta is flushed out with water which is called sewage.

• Solid portion of sewage is called sludge.

• Liquid portion of sewage is called sewage water.

• Compost that is prepared with the help of earthworms is called vermicompost.

• India has about 3000 species of earthworms.

• Earthworm is called as an ecosystem engineer.

• The weight of the material passing through the body each day is almost equal to the weight of the earthworm.

• Vermicompost is rich in all essential plant nutrients and contains valuable vitamins, enzymes and hormones.

• Vermicompost contains 3% N – 1% P2O5 – 1.5% K2O.

• Human urine contains 1.1 to 1.2% nitrogen.

• Manure from bullocks will be richer in nutrients than from cow producing milk.

• Droppings of sheep and goats are richer in nutrients than FYM and compost.

• Sheep and goat manure contains 3% N-1% P2O5-2% K2O.

• In sheep penning, sheep and goats are kept overnight in the field and urine and faecal matter added to the soil is incorporated to a shallow depth by working blade harrow or cultivator.

• Poultry manure contains 3.03% N – 2.63% P2O5 -1.4% K2O.

• Edible oilcakes can be safely fed to livestock e.g., groundnut cake, coconut cake etc.

• Nonedible oilseeds are not fit for feeding livestock e.g., castor cake, neem cake, mahua cake etc. • Decorticated safflower cake contains 7.9% N.

• Groundnut cake contains 7.3% N.

• Raw bone meal contains 20-25% P2O5.

• Steamed bone meal contains 25-30% P2O5.

• The dry, inert powder made from animal blood is blood meal.

• The excrement of seabirds, cave-dwelling bats, pinnipeds or birds is known as bird guano.

• Paddy straw generally takes about 6-9 weeks to develop into mature compost, if efficient microbial inovulants containing T. viride, Aspergillus awamori, Paecilomyces fusisporus or Phanerochaete chrysosporium are used.

• Composting can be done by mainly two methods windrow and pit methods.

• Wind-row composting involves placing the mixture of raw materials in long narrow piles called wind rows.

• Bangalore process of composting was developed by C.N. Acharya.

• A majority of the composting processes involve aerobic composting.

• Karnataka produces the largest amount of rural and urban compost.

• The Indore process of composting was developed by Dr Howard at the Institute of Plant Industry, Indore.

• Coimbatore process was developed by Dr T.S. Manickam.

• Compost can be enriched by rock phosphate, bone meal and superphosphate.

• Green, undecomposed plant material used as manure is called green manure.

• Green manuring is growing in the field plants usually belonging to leguminous family and incorporating into the soil after sufficient growth.

• Plants that are grown for green manure are known as green manure crops.

• Sunhemp, dhaincha, pillipesara, clusterbean and Sesbania rostrata are the green manure crops.

• Optimum temperature for decomposition of green manure is 30-35 oC.

• Dhaincha is an ideal green-manure crop for rice based cropping system.

• Incorporation of 10 tonnes/ha of green manure through Sesbania or Crotalaria supplements fertilizer N equivalent to 40-45 kg/ha.

• The benefit of green manuring is felt only after continued application for 3-5 years.

• Green manuring helps in reclamation of alkaline soils.

• Sesbania aculeata is most suitable for reclamation of saline and alkali soils.

• Delonix elata green leaf manure used for reclamation of saline and sodic soils.

• Root-knot nematodes can be controlled by green manuring.

• Botanical name of wild indigo is Tephrosia purpurea.

• Tephrosia purpurea is a slow growing green manure crop.

• Sesbania rostrata is a stem nodulating green manure crop native of West Africa.

• Sesbania rostrata is a short day plant, length of vegetative period is short when sown in August or September.

• A mutant TSR-1 developed by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai is insensitive to photoperiod, tolerant to salinity and waterlogging.

• Sunhemp accumulates higher biomass per ha (30.6 tonnes/ha).

• Dhaincha (Sesbania aculeata) accumulates 23.2 tonnes biomass/ha.

• Sunhemp fixes higher nitrogen/ha (134 kg N/ha).

• Dhaincha fixes 133 kg N/ha.

• Nitrogen content in Dhaincha is 3.50%.

• Nitrogen content is highest in the green leaf manure Pongamia glabra (3.31%).

• Nitrogen fixation by leguminous green manure crops can be increased by application of phosphatic fertilizers.

• Application to the field, green leaves and twigs of trees, shrubs and herbs collected from elsewhere is known as green leaf manuring.

• Forest tree leaves and plants growing in wastelands, field bunds are another source of green leaf manure.

• Important green leaf manure species are neem, mahua, wild indigo, glyricidia, karanji (Pongamia glabra), Calotropis, avise (Sesbania grandiflora), subabul.

• Gliricidia is used as a shade crop first and then incorporated as green manure.

• Gliricidia is more effective in sodic soil.

• Nutrient availability increases due to production of carbon dioxide and organic acids during decomposition.

• Incorporation of green leaf manures like sunhemp, Sesbania rostrata, Calotropis spp. Tephrosia spp. and Glyricidia spp. increases the DTPA-Zn and Cu status markedly.

• Most of the green manure crops are legumes which fix nitrogen and improve soil fertility.

• Most of the legumes derive 80-90% of their nitrogen requirement from biologically fixed N.

• Water requirement of pulses varies from 250 to 300 mm.

• Among pulse based cropping systems rice-lathyrus is the most extensive cropping system.

• Rice fallows are spread in 11.7 m ha in India.