Ashwagandha ( Withania somnifera L . Dunal ) crop as affected by the application of farm yard manure ( FYM ) and inorganic phosphorus in typic Torripsamment of Hisar

soil, whereas; dry weight of roots was enhanced up to the application level of 25 mg P2O5 kg -1 soil. FYM at the rate of 12.5 t ha -1 in combination with 12.5 mg P2O5 kg -1 soil significantly improved all the vegetative parameters, whereas, FYM at the rate of 12.5 t ha -1 in combination with 25 mg P2O5 kg -1 soil significantly enhanced the dry weight of the roots. The alkaloids yield (mg pot -1 ) in ashwagandha roots increased significantly with the application of 25 mg P2O5 kg -1 soil. The application of FYM at the rate of 12.5 t ha -1 improved the alkaloids yield (mg pot -1 ) but the significantly highest yield of total alkaloids (mg pot -1 ) was found in the treatment combination of 12.5 t FYM ha -1 + inorganic-P at the rate of 25 mg P2O5 kg -1 soil as compared with other eleven treatments. Nutrients (NPK) uptake by ashwagandha shoot increased significantly with the application level of 12.5 mg P2O5 kg -1 soil over control whereas in case of ashwagandha roots, the increase in nutrients uptake at the level of 25 mg P2O5 kg -1 soil over control. Application of FYM at the rate of 12.5 t ha -1 + 12.5 mg P2O5 kg -1 soil was the best treatment combination for ashwagandha roots in terms of nutrients uptake. Application of fertilizer-P significantly improved the status of organic carbon, Available-P in post harvest soil but decreased the Available-N, Available-K and DTPA extractable micronutrients (Fe, Cu, Zn and Mn) up to the level of 25 mg P2O5 kg -1 soil. FYM at the rate of 12.5 t ha -1 helped in maintaining the soil fertility status after harvest of the crop alone or in combination with fertilizer-P.


INTRODUCTION
Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera L. Dunal), commonly called 'Winter cherry', is a dryland medicinal crop having tremendous marketing potential owing to demand of its roots to the tune of 7000 tonnes and estimated production of 1500 tonnes (Umadevi et al., 2012).Ashwagandha root drug find an important place in Ayurveda (Khanna et al., 2006;Kulkarni and Dhir, 2008) for the treatment of rheumatic pain, inflammation of joints, nervous disorders, impotence and immature ageing and is considered as 'Indian ginseng' (Khanna et al., 2006;Kulkarni and Dhir, 2008).It belongs to the family 'Solanaceae' and is native to Indian subcontinent.The plant grows erect to a height of 35-75 cm having small green-coloured flowers and orange-red ripe fruit.The past studies have concentrated *Corresponding author.E-mail: ladwa@rediffmail.com.CD, p=0.05;Plant height (cm): Phosphorus = 6.9, FYM = 3.4, phosphorus X FYM = 6.1;No. of primary branches: phosphorus = 3.6, FYM = 1.3, phosphorus X FYM = N.S; plant spread (cm 2 ): phosphorus = 12.3, FYM = 9.6, phosphorus X FYM = 17.2; dry weight (g) of roots (dry weight of shoots in g given in bracket): phosphorus = 0.08(0.43),FYM = 0.14(0.31),phosphorus X FYM = 0.16(N.S.); yield of alkaloids (mg pot -1 ): phosphorus = 1.8, FYM = 1.4,phosphorus X FYM = 3.5.on root growth and biochemical composition in different accessions.There is limited literature available on nutritional studies of ashwagandha with respect to its vegetative and quality parameters.The yield and quality of any crop heavily relies on the knowledge of nutritional requirement and its supply accordingly.Keeping this in view, the present study was an attempt to study the effect of inorganic source of nutrients alone and in combination with farm yard manure (FYM) on plant growth parameters, alkaloids yield, nutrients uptake and post-harvest soil nutrient status under ashwagandha.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A pot experiment was conducted to study the response of graded levels of P in combination with FYM on plant growth parameters and medicinal quality of ashwagandha (Withania somnifera L. Dunal, cv.JA 20) at screen-house, Department of Soil Science, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar (29°05 / N, 75°38 / E, 222m elevation).The soil (Typic Torripsamment) used was loamy sand in texture, pH 8.0, EC (1:2) 0.34 dS m -1 , Organic Carbon 0.26 %, Available N, P, K were 112.6, 12.0 and 192.0 kg ha -1 respectively.Available (DTPA extractable) Zn, Cu, Fe and Mn were 0.34, 0.26, 4.05 and 6.87 mg kg -1 respectively.The O.C (%), total NPK in FYM were 38.4,0.87, 0.29 and 0.73%, respectively.The treatment combination comprised of four levels of phosphorus (0, 12.5, 25 and 37.5 mg P 2 O 5 kg -1 soil) applied through KH 2 PO 4 and three levels of FYM (0, 12.5 and 25 t ha -1 ).Experimental data was statistically analyzed by two factor completely randomized design using ANOVA with three replications by using OPSTAT.Basal doses of nitrogen, potassium and zinc were applied through urea, KCl and ZnSO 4 solutions.Nitrogen was applied in two splits, that is, half at the time of sowing and another half at 21 days after sowing.5 kg soil was placed in each earthen pot after giving respective treatments on a polythene sheet.The crop was harvested after 120 days of sowing and observations were recorded separately in each pot.All the samples were analyzed by following standard laboratory procedures.Total alkaloids (%) in ashwagandha were determined by extraction with chloroform as described by Rajpal (2002).

Effect on growth parameters
It can be seen from Table 1 that application of fertilizer-P at the rate of 12.5, 25 and 37.5 mg kg -1 soil resulted in increase in plant height by 11.8, 21.1 and 23.9% over control.Though P at all levels increased the plant height but the increase was significant up to application level of 12.5 mg P 2 O 5 kg -1 soil (32.3cm) over control (28.9 cm).Application of FYM also helped in increasing the height of ashwagandha at all levels but the significant increase of 4.4% was observed at level of 12.5 t ha -1 over control.Wafaa et al. (2006) also reported almost similar results.Phosphorus fertilizer along with FYM resulted in increased plant height at all levels of FYM up to 12.5 mg P 2 O 5 kg -1 soil.Aishwath (2004) also reported increase in plant height by application of phosphorus fertilizer.
Data also indicated that number of primary branches increased significantly with 12.5 mg P 2 O 5 kg -1 soil (2.1) to the extent of 31.3% over control (1.6).However the increase between that of 25 mg P 2 O 5 kg -1 soil (2.4) and 37.5 mg P 2 O 5 kg -1 soil (2.6) was found to be non-significant.Kothari et al. (2005) also reported increase in number of branches by application of P-fertilizer.FYM at the rate of 12.5 t ha -1 (2.2) also increased the average number of primary branches over control (2.0) but this increase (10.0% over control) was on a par with that of FYM at the rate of 25 t ha -1 (2.3, that is, 15.0% over control).Somnath et al. (2005) ported significant increase in yield attributing characters by application of FYM.
A perusal of the data (Table 1) indicated that increasing level of P increased the plant spread by 51.6, 67.4 and 79.0% over control by application of 12.5, 25 and 37.5 mg P 2 O 5 kg -1 soil.Almost similar results were reported by Kothari et al. (2005) and Somnath et al. (2005).FYM helped in increase of plant spread at all levels, that is, 12.5 and 25 t ha -1 (217.6 and 230.2 cm 2 respectively) over control (199.2 cm 2 ).Almost similar results were reported by Somnath et al. (2005).Inorganic phosphorus applied along with FYM also indicated the positive effect on plant spread and the interaction effect was significant up to 12.5 mg P 2 O 5 kg -1 soil at all levels of FYM application.Our results are in agreement with that of Joy et al. (2005) and Wafaa et al. (2006).
Data also indicated that application of fertilizer-P at the rate of 12.5, 25 and 37.5 mg P 2 O 5 kg -1 soil which resulted in mean dry weight of ashwagandha roots to the extent of 13.3, 15.6 and 17.7% increase over control.It could be observed that there was progressive increase in the dry weight of ashwagandha roots by increasing the rate of phosphorus application; however, the increase was significant up to application level of 25 mg P 2 O 5 kg -1 soil.Kothari et al. (2005) and Somnath et al. (2005) also reported increased dry weight by application of phosphorus fertilizer.FYM at the rate of 25 t ha -1 (3.92 g pot -1 ) significantly increased the average fresh weight of roots over control (3.43 g pot -1 ) and the extent of increase was 14.3%.Along with phosphorus, 12.5 t FYM ha -1 was found to be the appropriate dose for increase in dry weight of roots significantly over control.Chauhan et al. (2005) and Joy et al. (2005) also reported increase in dry matter by application of FYM.
A critical study of the data (Table 1) revealed that phosphorus application up to 12.5 P 2 O 5 kg -1 soil enhanced the dry weight of ashwagandha shoot to 5.28 g and the corresponding increase was 8.9% over control.This increase was on a par with increase by application levels of 25 and 37.5 kg -1 P 2 O 5 soil.Pratibha and Korwar (2005) also reported increase in biomass by application of phosphorus fertilizer.FYM at all levels increased the dry weight of shoot but the significant increase was observed up to application of FYM at the rate of 12.5 t ha -1 over control (6.7%).Positive effect on plant growth parameters had been demonstrated by Qian and Schoenau (2010), Tantawy et al. (2010) and Wenyi et al. (2011) after application of inorganic phosphorus and by Raafat et al. (2011), Raja et al. (2011) and Singh et al. (2011) after application of FYM.However, the extent of effect varies depending upon soil, fertilizer level and crop.

Effect on yield of alkaloids
Data (Table 1) also indicated that application of phosphorus at the rate of 12.5 mg P 2 O 5 kg -1 soil significantly increased the alkaloids yield (mg pot -1 ) of ashwagandha roots up to 38.5% over control.Balakumbahan et al. (2005) and Kolodziej et al. (2009) also reported almost similar results of increase in alkaloids by application of phosphorus fertilizer.FYM at the rate of 12.5 t ha -1 increased the alkaloids yield up to 18.8% over control.Kumar (2011) and Lakshmi et al. (2011) showed improvement in quality of crops by application of FYM.

Effect on nutrients uptake by shoot and roots of ashwagandha
N uptake by shoot increased significantly by application of fertilizer-P (Table 2) and the maximum average increase was 23.8% by application of 37.5 mg P 2 O 5 kg -1 soil (103.0 mg pot -1 ) over control.Application of FYM at the rate of 12.5 and 25 t ha -1 increased the N uptake by 8.8 and 14.1% respectively, over control and the increase was on a par between 12.5 (96.5 mg pot -1 ) and 25 t ha -1 (101.2 mg pot -1 ).Patil et al. (2005) also reported that supplementing nitrogen promoted the uptake of nitrogen.The application of P and P + FYM showed an increase in N-uptake by ashwagandha roots over control (Table 3).The increase in N-uptake was primarily due to the increase in dry weight of roots by these parameters.Highest values of N uptake by ashwagandha roots (93.9 mg pot -1 ) was obtained with 37.5 mg P 2 O 5 kg -1 soil + 25 t FYM ha -1 which was on a par with that of 88.6 mg pot -1 (25 mg P 2 O 5 kg -1 soil + 12.5 t FYM ha -1 ).In the absence of FYM, mineral-P increased N-uptake by ashwagandha roots up to 16.1% at application level of 37.5 mg P 2 O 5 kg -1 soil.Uptake of phosphorus by ashwagandha shoots was positively and significantly enhanced by increasing level of mineral-P and mineral-P + FYM application.Addition of mineral-P at the rate of 12.5, 25 and 37.5 mg P 2 O 5 kg -1 soil increased average P-uptake by 25.7, 49.7 and 59.1%, respectively, over control.Almost similar results were reported by Kadlag et al. (2005) and Patil et al. (2005).Also, addition of FYM at the rate of 12.5 and 25 t ha -1 enhanced the P-uptake by 16.3 and 25.2%, respectively, over control.P-uptake by ashwagandha roots showed an increasing trend with increasing dose of fertilizer-P alone.The average extent of increase was 12.3 mg pot -1 higher than the control with application of 37.5 mg P 2 O 5 kg -1 soil.However, with application of 25 t FYM ha -1 , average increase in P-uptake was 29.3% over control.The positive effect of FYM on P concentration may be attributed primarily to the enhanced availability of native P, increase in P solubility and reduction in phosphate fixing capacity (Singh et al., 1983).Secondly, organic acids and humic substances produced during decomposition of organic manures could have increased the availability of P by chelating Ca, Fe and Al (Singh et al., 1981), and forming water-soluble organic metallic phosphate (Sinha, 1975).Application of mineral-P at the rate of 37.5 mg P 2 O 5 kg -1 soil increased average K-uptake by ashwagandha shoot up to 50.0% over control.This might be due to synergistic relationship between N and K. Misas et al. (2003) also CD, (p=0.05);N uptake by shoot: Phosphorus = 7.6, FYM = 5.4, phosphorus X FYM = 13.8;P uptake by shoot: phosphorus = 3.8, FYM = 3.2, phosphorus X FYM = 4.9; K uptake by shoot: phosphorus = 10.8,FYM = 9.3, phosphorus X FYM = 17.7.CD, (p=0.05);N uptake by roots: Phosphorus = 3.9, FYM = 6.2, phosphorus X FYM = 12.7; P uptake by roots: Phosphorus = 3.3, FYM = 2.6, phosphorus X FYM = 5.7; K uptake by roots: phosphorus = 6.7,FYM = 6.2, phosphorus X FYM = 13.7.
reported that P fertilizer application increased the K concentration in plants.Addition of phosphorus (either alone or in combination with FYM) had a marked effect on K-uptake by roots of ashwagandha.Application of fertilizer-P at the rate of 12.5, 25 and 37.5 mg P 2 O 5 kg -1 soil increased the average K uptake by roots to the extent of 25.4, 39.2 and 47.9% over control.The extent of increase by application of FYM at the rate of 12.5 and 25 t ha -1 was 12.9 and 19.8% over control.Sepat et al. (2010), Sepehya et al. (2012) and Singh et al. (2011) also showed the increase in NPK content by increased dose of FYM.
This decrease might be attributed to better crop growth with high rates of phosphorus addition resulting in higher uptake of nitrogen.FYM singlehandedly augmented the average available nitrogen content of the soil from 105.1 (control) to 114.0 mg kg -1 soil (25 t FYM ha -1 ).Also, there was 36.5% (12.5 t FYM ha -1 ) to 57.7% (25 t FYM ha -1 ) increase in average available phosphorus status of soil over control by application of different FYM treatments in ashwagandha.The increase in available phosphorus content with increased P levels may be attributed to the residual effect of applied P and increase in mineralization of organic matter.
There was significant decrease in available K content of soil with addition of successive levels of fertilizer-P but significant increase with the application of FYM.This has been demonstrated by Sepat et al. (2010) and Thakur et al. (2011).Natarajan et al. (2005) also reported decrease in K-status of the soil by application of chemical fertilizers and added that organic manure application enhanced the available K-status of the soil by application of chemical fertilizers.The decrease with successive addition of fertilizer-P may have been due to better crop growth with high rates of P addition resulting in higher uptake of K.The increase in available K with addition of FYM might be due to the organic acids, which were released during microbial decomposition of FYM; these helped in solubility of native potash as a result of which increase in available K content occurred.11.1% decrease in DTPA extractable Zn was recorded by application of 25 mg P 2 O 5 kg -1 soil over control (Table 5).FYM at the rate of 25 t ha -1 recorded increase in DTPA extractable Zn over control to the extent of 12.8% over control.Application of 12.5 mg P 2 O 5 kg -1 soil recorded significant reduction in DTPA extractable Cu content of post harvest soil over control (16.1%).FYM at the rate of 12.5 t ha -1 proved to be effective in maintaining the soil fertility in terms of DTPA extractable Cu content of the post harvest soil to the extent of 12.5% over control.Increasing dose of P-fertilizer decreased the DTPA extractable Fe status in soil after harvest of ashwagandha and the decrease was significant up to 12.5 mg P 2 O 5 kg -1 soil.Data further indicated that the application of 12.5 mg P 2 O 5 kg -1 soil decreased the DTPA extractable Mn status of the soil to the extent of 1.0% over control and above this dose; the effect was on a par with this level.FYM at all levels was found to be non-significant in terms of DTPA extractable Mn content of the post harvest soil.Datta et al. (2010), Reddy (2010) and Singh et al. (2012) reported that addition/substitution of FYM recorded significantly higher level of micronutrients uptake over other treatments.
This study shows that the growth of ashwagandha and yield of alkaloids is enhanced significantly by application of P and FYM while maintaining the nutrient status of the soil.Therefore, the two components should invariably form an input part for better economic yield of the drug.The low satisfactory and high values for the yield of the drug reported in the article could be used to elaborate a fertilizer recommendation system for ashwagandha.

Table 1 .
Effect of FYM and inorganic phosphorus on growth parameters and yield of alkaloids.

Table 2 .
Effect of FYM and inorganic phosphorus on nutrients uptake by shoot of ashwagandha.

Table 3 .
Effect of FYM and inorganic phosphorus on nutrients uptake by roots of ashwagandha.

Table 4 .
Effect of FYM and inorganic phosphorus on soil macronutrient status.

Table 5 .
Effect of FYM and inorganic phosphorus on soil DTPA extractable micronutrients status.