PERFORMANCE OF SPINACH IN HEAVY METAL POLLUTED SOIL UNDER DIFFERENT DECONTAMINANTS

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at Student Farm, College of Agriculture, PJTSAU Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, during kharif 2016 to study the performance of spinach in heavy metal polluted soil under different decontaminants (different dosages of phosphorus, various levels of quick lime). The fresh and dry weight of spinach varied from 24.19 to 30.32, 2.56 to 3.42 t ha-1 respectively. Among the different decontaminants highest fresh weight (30.32 t ha-1) and dry weight (3.42 t ha-1) was obtained in
T5 (RDF+CaO @ 2 t ha-1), which was significantly superior over all other treatments and on par with T4 (RDF+CaO @ 1 t ha-1), and per cent increase over RDF was 25.34, 33.59, respectively for fresh and dry weight of spinach. Decontamination treatments had reduced the mean Pb, Cd, Ni and Co contents of spinach to 17.86, 1.00, 2.86 and 3.94 mg kg-1 and increased mean uptake to 55.99, 3.14, 8.95 and 12.35 g ha-1 respectively for Pb, Cd, Ni and Co. The Pb, Cd, Ni and Co contents of soil after harvest of the spinach crop ranged from 19.58, 1.02, 2.58 and 2.58 mg kg-1 in the reference control and decreased to 15.58, 0.79, 2.34 and 2.34 with RDF+CaO @ 2 t ha-1 treatment. The reduction in Pb, Cd, Ni and Co concentration in post harvest soil was more due to Cao at different levels when compared to application of high phosphorus.