Integrated nutrient management in Indian basil (Ocimum basilicum)

•Indian basil is a short duration, economical industrial crop.•In field experiments combinations of organic and inorganic fertilizers were tested.•Application of 50:20:20 kg ha−1 N:P2O5:K2O and 10 Mg ha−1 FYM produced maximum oil.•Combined application of organic and inorganic fertilizer improved soil fertility.

Indian basil (Ocimum basilicum), is an economical essential oil producing industrial crop used in flavour and fragrance industries. Integrated nutrient management is an important approach to use the organic manure with optimum level of NPK fertilizers, as it will not only improve the nutrient status, but also sustained the crop yield. Field experiments were conducted at research farm of Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Lucknow, India during 2009 and 2010 to study integrated nutrient management in Indian basil. Application of 50% inorganic fertilizers (50:20:20 NPK kg ha−1) + 50% farm yard manure (10.0 Mg ha−1) produced significantly higher fresh herb and essential oil yields over other treatments and also increased the organic carbon status, available N, P2O5 and K2O by 0.16%, 62.4, 54.7 and 29.3 kg ha−1 in the post harvest soil from their initial values, respectively. The major constituents in the essential oil namely methyl chavicol and linalool did not change significantly due to treatments. Thus it is concluded that combined application of 50% each of inorganic fertilizers (50:20:20 NPK kg ha−1) and FYM (10.0 Mg ha−1) produced significantly higher herb, oil yields and improved the soil fertility.