Influence of crop geometry and bio-fertilizer application on growth and yield of Phyllanthus amarus Schumach. & Thonn

For commercial production of any crop, optimum performance is desirable, which is obtained mainly by manipulating cultural practices like planting density and nutrition to increase plant growth and crop yield. Among the factors determining the quantity of fertilizer nutrients for the crop, the plant density is more important than any other single factor. Phyllanthus amarus Schumach. & Thonn., a very common weed for ‘kharif’ crops, also known as ‘bhumiamalki’, is gaining popularity gradually and high in demand in both Ayurvedic and pharmaceutical industries. Since the plant is directly used as herbal raw material for the preparation of health care drugs, use of chemicals is avoided to ensure good quality of the drug. Hence, the challenge is to replace the chemical fertilizers by integrated use of organic manures with bio-fertilizers to optimize the nutrient availability to crop plant for optimum growth, yield and quality. Keeping these points in consideration, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the best combination of organic sources of fertilizer nutrients and plant density for maximum fresh and dry herb yield of this important medicinal plant. During the two years field study, a notable impact of varying plant population and bio-fertilizers was recorded on the growth parameters like plant height and number of branches and fresh and dry weight of P. amarus plants. The present investigation also revealed that optimum plant population of 166,667 per ha (20×30 cm) along with combined application of Azotobacter and Phosphate Solubilizing Bacteria (PSB) led to higher fresh (21.93 qha⁻¹) and dry (12.63 qha⁻¹) herbage yield. The findings showed potential of agricultural management practices along with use of bio-fertilizers to obtain the optimum organic herbal raw material of P. amarus.