Abstract

An experiment was carried out during 2014–15 at the Experimental Farm, Department of Horticulture, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat to assess the growth, yield and soil characters with seven treatments and three replications in randomized block design (RBD). The treatments were T,: FYM 20 t/ha+NPK @ 30: 40: 20 kg/ha (RDF), T2: Enriched compost @ 3 t/ha, T3: Enriched compost @ 3 t/ha+Consortium, T4: Vermicompost @ 3 t/ha, T5: Vermicompost @ 5 t/ha, TG: Vermicompost @ 2.5 t/ha+ Consortium and T7: Consortium (Rhizobium+Azotobacter+Azospirillum+PSB). The performance of French bean was greatly influenced by different treatments. Results indicated that T1 recorded maximum for most of the growth and yield characters viz., plant height (43.07 cm), number of branches (6.90), number of leaves/plant (76.71), pods/plant (28.57), pod length (15.07 cm), pod girth (0.96 cm), seeds/pod (6,73), pod yield (11.27 t/ha) and harvest index (67.67%). Then, T3 reflected the maximum nodules/plant (19.33) and nodule nitrogen content (5.54% DW) at final harvest. Further, T3 also recorded the best for all the soil parameters viz., bulk density (0.83 g/cm3), pH (5.33) and P2O5 (47.40 kg/ha); T5 recorded highest organic carbon (0.68%), while T1 revealed maximum N and K (220.56 and 119.31 kg/ha) content. In accordance with soil physico-chemical characters as found in T3 soil biological characters were also found to be statistically superior in respect of microbial biomass carbon (630.33 µg/g/24 h) and dehydrogenase activity (711.50 µg TPF/g/24 h).