Nutrient management with cow dung and chemical fertilizers enhances leaf yield and gel constituents in Aloe vera

Since ancient times, Aloe vera has been used extensively, including in the cosmetics and food businesses. Commercial cultivation of A. vera is scarce due to lack of information. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted to examine the integrated effect of inorganic fertilizer (IF) and cow dung (CD) on the growth, yield, and nutritional composition of A. vera. A randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four replications was used for the experiment having total nine treatment combinations of IF and CD viz., IF 0% + CD 0%, IF 100% + CD 0%, IF 75% + CD 25%, IF 50% + CD 50%, IF 40% + CD 60%, IF 30% + CD 70%, IF 20% + CD 80%, IF 10% + CD 90%, and IF 0% + CD 100%. Varying combinations of IF and CD significantly influenced the studied parameters. On average, applications of 30% IF and 70% CD enhanced the leaf yield by 37%, gel yield by 31% and nutritional quality by 28% compared to control. The post-harvest soil characteristics, including the percentage of nitrogen and organic matter, soil pH, exchangeable potassium, available phosphorus, and available sulfur, were found to increase with the higher application of cow dung. Applying both 30% IF and 70% CD showed a substantial increase in growth, yield, gel nutritional quality, and post-harvest soil characteristics compared to other treatments including control. Therefore, application of 30% IF with 70% CD could be a best strategy for obtaining improved growth, yield, and nutritional quality of A. vera.