Fortuneem Cake Salient Characteristics:

• Fortuneem Cake not only acts as manure but also acts as soil conditioner by increasing soil porosity and water retaining capacity.
• It controls nematode population and other soil borne diseases.
• It is rich in NPK as well as micronutrients.
• Acts as nitrogen regulator in soil.
• It is found useful in horticultural crops like grapes, banana, mango and cash crops like sugar cane, cotton, vegetables etc.
• It is ideal for organic farming , green houses, turfs and poly houses

A) Fortuneem Cake as Nitrogen regulator

It was noted that (Bains et al, 1971), under field conditions, use of urea with acetone extract of neem kernel was found to inhibit nitrification and thus nitrogen remains available as ammonium for longer period. Use of nitrification inhibitors and slow release nitrogen fertilizers for increasing efficiency of fertilizers applied to rice have been well established by Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI).

It was also observed that nitrogen uptake of rice was increased 54% when urea was coated with Fortuneem cake.
Today Fortuneem cake is used widely as soil conditioner by farmers all over the world.

B) Neematode control by neem

Control of phytophagus nematodes through field application of chemical nematicides is costly and poses serious problem of accumulation of toxic material.

Therefore use of organic soil amendments to keep nematode population in the soil at relatively innocuous level and help building up soil fertility was found to be best alternative.
Fortuneem Cake is found to be highly effective in this regard.

The mechanism of control is attributed to following factors:

• Stimulation of predacious fugi and other organisms like anthropods, protozoa Bacteria and other predators or parasites which subsequently keep down nematode population.
• The metabolism of microbes active during decomposition of organic matter may be toxic to nematodes.
• The amendments may alter soil temperature pH and oxygen/nitrogen status of soil to make it unfavorable for nematode activity.
• The amendment may alter physical and chemical conditions of the soil leading to increase in host resistance to invasion.

Dosage:
Recommended doses of Fortuneem Cake
(Note: Dosages may vary depending upon soil conditions.)

Crop/Fruit	Age(years)	Neem Cake Kg.
Grapes	Per plantPer pruning	1.50 Kg.
BananaPer tree	90 daysAfter plantation	500 gms.
Sweet Lime/ Orange / Lemon per tree	1 to 5Above 5	5 kg.10 kg.
Sugarcane	Per AcreIn 2 stages	1000 kg.
MangoPer tree	1 to 3Above 4Above 10	1 kg.3kg.12 kg.
Okra, Chilli,Tomato, Brinjal, Cauliflower	Per Acre	600 kg.
Potato / Onion	Per Acre	500 kg.
CoconutPer tree	1 to 5Above 5Above 10	2 kg.4 kg.10 kg.
CashewPer tree	Above 4	4 kg.
Cotton	Per Acre	200 kg.
Soyabean,Ground nut	Per Acre	300 kg.
Paddy	Per plant	600 kg.
Aster, Carnation	Per ha	6000 kg.
Chysanthemum	Per ha	6000 kg.
Tuberose	Per ha	6000 kg.
Gladiolus	Per ha	6000 kg.
Rose	Per ha	6000 kg.