Productivity of Marigold and Mentha in response to wastewater irrigation, land configuration and nitrogen levels

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out on marigold and mentha to assess the impact of wastewater
irrigation under different land configuration and nitrogen levels on the crop productivity during
two consecutive season of 2014-15 at IARI, New Delhi. Wastewater irrigation resulted into significant
increase in marigold flower yield (3.94%) and herb (10.8%) and oil yield (9.7%) of mentha as compared
to ground water irrigation. Raised bed planting was proved more beneficial in case of marigold in
producing significantly higher flower yield whereas the herb and oil yield differences in case of
mentha were not significant when compared with flat bed planting. The higher dose of nitrogen
(120 kg N/ha) application in marigold resulted 118.8 and 25.5% increase in flower yield over control
and 60 kg N/ha, respectively. In case of mentha, the interaction effects between water quality and
nitrogen rates indicated that application of 100 % recommended dose of nitrogen (75kg /ha) along
with ground water irrigation produced herb and oil yield statistically at par with that obtained by
applying 50% recommended dose of nitrogen under waste water irrigation thereby showing 50%
(37.5 kg /ha) saving of applied nitrogen.