The Authors are Post Graduate Researchers at the Centre for Advanced Research in Zoology, Yadava College, in Madurai, India. → See also:
Key words: Egg lime, Panchakavya, Solanum lycopersicum
Ecofriendly agriculture has been a new trend to ensure sustainable productivity and conserve environmental quality of soil, water; reduce pollution, recycle organic resources, and produce safe foods. The sad thing today is with a view to increase yields, chemicals have been dumped continuously over years and have made the land infertile, leading to yield losses. Bio fertilizers have become an ideal substitute for chemical fertilizers for conditioning the soil fertility and to maintain the agro-ecosystem. A farmer spends about Indian Rupees 3000 for growing paddy in an acre using chemical fertilizers. Supposing, the same farmer uses organic inputs, he can grow the same crop in an acre for as less as say Indian Rupees 500. He is thus able to save INR. 2,500 easily (Prabu, 2008). Gopalakrishnan, a progressive farmer in Tamil Nadu, India has developed a plant growth hormone called egg lime formulation (called as Muttai Rasam in Tamil) and obtained tremendous growth rate and yield in crops when it was mixed with panchakavya, an organic growth promoter for plants (Prabu, 2008; Alagesan and Mahadevan, 2009). Hence, an attempt has been made to explore the efficacy of the egg lime mix with panchakavya on the tomato plant, Solanum lycopersicum.
Prescription for making egg lime mixture (Muttai rasam) is given below ( Prabu, 2008)
Materials required:
The ripened limes were squeezed and the juice was taken in a plastic bucket. About 250 gm of jaggery was mixed well with the lime juice to form a solution. Then 15 chicken eggs were placed into the bucket containing the solution in such a way that all the eggs were well immersed inside the solution. The bucket was closed with an air tight lid and kept in a shade for about 10 days. On the 10th day, the eggs along with the shells inside the solution were become rubbery, like a rubber ball. The eggs (along with the shell) with the lime and jaggery solution were mixed. After thorough mixing, equal measure to the lime jaggery solution, jaggery solution again was added. For example if there is 2 litres of the solution, then 2 litres of jaggery solution should be added. Then the bucket was tightly closed for about another 10 days. After the 10th day the formulation was mixed with panchakavya and used as a spray. According to Gopalakrishnan (Prabu, 2008) it is advisable to drill small holes in the lid of the bucket to facilitate for the escape of gases liberated from the solution. The solution can be stored for about 6 months.
A modified prescription for making 10 litres of panchakavya is given below (Natarajan, 2004)
Materials required:
Wide mouthed mud pots are used for preparation of Parameters. The measured amount of cow dung and ghee were added first into the container and kept for about three days for fermentation. On the fourth day the remaining products were added to the container and kept for seven more days. The contents were stirred for 20 minutes each; both in the morning as well as evening to facilitate aerobic microbial activity. After ten days of incubation, different concentrations were prepared.
Desired formulations were prepared by mixing egg lime mix and panchakavya using water as a solvent.
Treatment 1 (T1): 10 ml of egg lime mix + 10 ml of panchakavya + 980 ml of water
Treatment 2 (T2): 20 ml of egg lime mix + 20 ml of panchakavya + 960 ml of water
Treatment 3 (T3): 30 ml of egg lime mix + 30 ml of panchakavya + 940 ml of water
Treatment 4 (T4): 40 ml of egg lime mix + 40 ml of panchakavya + 920 ml of water
To assess the efficacy of the egg lime mix with panchakavya on the tomato plant, Solanum lycopersicum was selected. About 3 kg of autoclaved fertile garden soil was taken in separate five sets pots i.e one control and four experimental. In each pot 5 seeds of S. lycopersicum were sowed and maintained for a period of 50 days. The different concentrations of egg lime mix with panchakavya were sprayed with hand- sprayer using high pore size nozzle (2mm) besides adding about 50 ml of each concentration to the root of the plants in the respective pots at a regular interval of 15 days from the day of sowing the seeds. Totally three times, the plants S. lycopersicum were treated with the different formulations.
The data related to morphometry and bionomics of plants, i.e height of the plants, number and area of leaves; number and weight of the fruits were measured and recorded at the 45th day after sowing the seeds.
The leaves of both control and experimental tomato plants from the respective pots were collected after 45th day of growth and the chlorophyll content of leaf tissue was estimated following the method of Arnon (1949).
From the present investigation it is evident that when the egg lime mix and the five products of the cow namely, panchakavya are thoroughly mixed and used, these have miraculous positive influence on plant growth parameters (Table 1).
In the present investigation, when the egg lime mix added with Parameters in different proportions, the height of S. lycopersicum was increased tremendously from 21.6, 24.8, 27.1, 30.2 and 34.6cm at the end of 45th day in the control, T1, T2, T3 and T4 of egg lime mix with panchakavya respectively. Prabu (2008) reported that the application of egg lime mix with panchakavya on crops such as paddy, wheat, banana, vegetables, greens and fruit trees the yield and longevity of the plants were remarkably increased.
S. lycopersicum showed higher number of leaves (124.3) in the plants treated with T4 formulations than the control (53.3). Perumal et al., (2006) reported that presence of growth regulatory substances such as Indole Acetic Acid (IAA), Gibberlic Acid (GA3), Cytokinin and essential plant nutrients from panchakavya caused a tremendous influence on the growth rate in Alium cepa
At the end of 45th day of experiment the leaf area of the control S. lycopersicum was 4.33cm². But it was steadily increased to 5.16, 6.91, 8.08 and 10.6cm² at T1, T2, T3 and T4 formulations respectively. It is well established that when egg lime mix with panchakavya sprayed over the plants produce larger leaves and develop denser canopy. The stem produces lateral shoots and much more sturdy branches; the rooting is profuse and dense and penetrating to help in better intake of nutrients and water (Natarajan, 2003). Similarly, Sankar et al., (2005) observed increased growth and high yield in onion plant, Alium cepa treated with panchakavya
| Parameters | Treatment | |||||
| Control | T1 | T2 | T3 | T4 | ||
| Height (cm) | 21.6 ± 0.28 | 24.8 ± 1.04 | 27.1 ± 1.08 | 30.2 ± 2.41 | 34.6 ± 1.48 | |
| Leaf | Number | 53.3 ± 4.26 | 58.4 ± 5.25 | 72.0 ± 3.21 | 84.6 ± 4.72 | 124.3 ± 11.37 |
| Area (cm²) | 4.33 ± 0.52 | 5.16 ± 0.38 | 6.91 ± 0.76 | 8.08 ± 0.78 | 10.6 ± 0.38 | |
| Fruit | Number | 7.01 ± 0.56 | 8.94 ± 0.71 | 11.5 ± 0.92 | 14.6 ± 1.16 | 17.8 ± 1.42 |
| Weight (gm) | 22.0 ± 1.98 | 23.7 ± 2.13 | 27.4 ± 2.46 | 29.5 ± 2.65 | 34.2 ± 3.07 | |
| Chlorophyll (mg/g.fresh wt) | 1.85 ± 0.16 | 2.07 ± 0.18 | 2.44 ± 0.19 | 3.11 ± 0.24 | 3.86 ± 0.30 | |
Maximum number (17.8/plant) of tomatoes was observed in the plants treated with T4 formulations. Similarly, Ram and Pathak (2008) reported that the pancahkavya doubled the fruit yield in Guava plant. Jayasree and George (2006) reported that Parameters increased the maximum shelf life, fruit wt and fruit length in chilli, Capsicum annuum. The tomato from the egg lime mix with panchakavya treated plants showed an increase in weight (34.2gm/ fruit) in the T4 formulations than the control (22.0gm/ fruit). Panchakavya was found to enhance the biological efficiency of crop plants and the quality of flowers, fruits and vegetables (Selvaraj, 2006).
The total chlorophyll content was comparatively higher (3.86 mg/g.fresh wt) in the leaves of plants treated with T4 formulation than the control (1.85 mg/g.fresh wt) after 45th day. Statistical analysis revealed that all the growth parameters and the chlorophyll content of the treated plants are positively correlated (P< 0.05) with different concentrations of egg lime with panchakavya. Higher chlorophyll content in the leaves treated tomatoes may be due to the presence of growth regulatory substances and essential plant nutrients in the egg lime mix with panchakavya (Perumal et al., 2006). The increase in the levels of chlorophyll pigments may favour photosynthetic activity which might in turn increase the growth and yield of the plant, S. lycopersicum as reported by Sivapandian et al., (2005) and Nithya et al., (2006).
The authors thank the Principal and Management of Yadava College, Madurai for providing necessary facilities.
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