Abstract:
An experiment was conducted at the Horticulture Farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural
University, Dhaka during the period from October 2004 to January 2005 to study the
effect of different levels nitrogen (N) and phsophorus (P205) on the growth and yield of
lettuce. The different treatments of nitrogen were control (No), nitrogen 50 kg/ha (N30),
nitrogen l 00 kg/ha (N 100) and nitrogen 150 kg/ha (N 1so) as well as different treatments of
phosphorus were control (Po), phosphorus 50 kg/ha (P50) and phosphorus 100 kg/ha
(P100). The experiment was conducted in the Randomized Complete Block Design
(RCBD) with three replications. Data were recorded from ten randomly selected plants of
each unit plot on growth and yield of plants. Parameters on plant height, leaves number,
leaf area, fresh leaf yield per plant, gross yield, marketable yield, dry matter content and
fiber content were studied. Application of different levels of nitrogen and phosphorus
significantly influenced the growth and yield of lettuce. The best performance was
obtained from N1soP100 treatment combination in case of all parameters that was
considered to be the best combination of fertilizer management for maxirmzmg the yield
of lettuce. The treatment N150 resulted the highest gross (44.50 t/ha) and marketable yield
(43.52 t/ha). The highest gross yield (40 t/ha) was recorded from P100 treatment, while the
lowest (35.5 t/ha) was recorded form Po treatment The combined effect of various levels
of nitrogen and phosphorus were also found significant m case of yield lettuce. The
treatment combination of N1soP100 produced the highest gross (45.50 t/ha) and marketable
yield (44.50 t/ha). The lowest gross (32.0 t/ha) and marketable yield (31.0 t/ha) were
recorded from the control treatment The benefit cost ratio was maximum (2.97) in the
treatment combination of N1soP1oo whereas the minimum (2.18) was recorded from the
control treatment (N0Po).
