Influence of organic and inorganic fertilizers on yield and quality of sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.)

Field experiments were carried out during Kharif season of 2015 and 2016 to study the influence of FYM, inorganic fertilizers and bio-fertilizers on fresh herbage yield, quantity and quality of essential oil of sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum). Nine treatments with  three replication were adopted in a randomized block design to find out the effect of different levels of N applied through FYM (100, 75 and 50% of the recommended N along with and without bio-fertilizers), recommended dose of NPK (160:80:80 kg ha-1), recommended FYM (10 t ha-1) + NPK (160:80:80  kg ha-1) and control (recommended  FYM (10 t ha-1) on fresh herbage and oil yield, oil content and oil quality of sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.). Pooled results revealed that application of recommended FYM (10 t ha-1) along with recommended NPK (160:80:80 kg ha-1) recorded the highest fresh herbage yield (39.95 and 19.37 t ha-1), essential oil content (0.48 and 0.45%) and essential oil yield (199.7 and 107.58 kg ha-1) in the main crop and ratoon, respectively. With respect to oil quality, bio-fertilizer has a good impact on oil quality, that highest percentage of Methyl chavicol was recorded with application of recommended FYM (10 t ha-1) + recommended N through FYM along with bio fertilizers in the main crop of 2016 (63.78%) and in the ratoon (59.39 and 59.67%) of 2015 and 2016, respectively