Mineral Fertilizers Improves the Quality of Turmeric and Soil

Abstract

An experiment was carried out to investigate the effects of different mineral fertilizers on mineral contents in turmeric rhizomes and soil enzyme activities and soil properties under field conditions in Uzbekistan. The present study is the first report on the impact of mineral fertilizers in turmeric rhizomes and soil enzymes and soil properties in Uzbekistan. The experiment was carried out with four treatments: T1—Control, T2—N75P50K50 kg/ha, T3—N125P100K100 kg/ha, and T4—N100P75K75 + B3Zn6Fe6 kg/ha. Turmeric rhizomes and soil samples were collected from field experiments at the Surkhandarya scientific experimental station of the vegetable, melon crops and potato research institute, Surkhandarya, Uzbekistan. The data showed that T3—the NPK (125:100:100 kg/ha) and T4—the NPK + BZnFe (100:75:75:3:6:6 kg/ha) treatments significantly enhanced K content by 27–21%, Ca content by 43–38%, and P content by 54–17% in turmeric rhizomes as compared to control without fertilizer. A maximum of turmeric rhizome microelements content was recorded with T4, which also resulted in improved Fe, Zn, Cu, Cr, and Mo contents in turmeric rhizomes and mineral contents of soil compared to other treatments. This treatment significantly enhanced active P content by 34%, active K content by 25%, total P content by 62%, total K content by 14%, and the activities of soil urease, invertase, catalase, and phosphatase over those in the control. The present study results suggest that the application of NPK + BZnFe (100:75:75:3:6:6 kg/ha) improves macro and micronutrient contents in turmeric rhizomes and activities of soil enzymes and physicochemical properties of soil.