Microbial and Chemical Indicators of Rhizospheric Soils of Apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) Variety Delicious in Himalayan Kashmir

With the introduction of high yielding varieties and hybrids during green revolution, the soils are getting depleted in nutrient reserves at a faster rate. As a consequence, nutrient deficiencies are becoming one of the major constraints in crop production, especially in coarse-textured soils. Microorganisms present in the rhizospheric soils supply principal elements to the plant and also promote other activities in the soil which improve its structure, aeration, and water holding capacity, which in turn improve the soil capabilities to respond to inputs. This investigation deals with the evaluation of thirty composite soil samples collected from different apple orchards of Shopian district of Kashmir valley, is popular for its cultivation, and analyzed for soil characteristics like organic carbon content, total available N, P, K, S; EC, pH, total viable bacterial, fungal and actinomycetes count as chemical and microbial indicators of rhizospheric soil health of apple orchards in Himalayan Kashmir. It was observed that the soil characteristics were significantly correlated at 95% to 99%confidence interval except available phosphorus and sulphur with each other.