EFFECT OF COWDUNG AND POULTRY LITTER ON THE GROWTH AND YIELD OF OKRA (Abelmoschus esculeutuss)

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of cowdung and poultry litter on the growth and yield of okra at the central farm of Sher-e-Bangla AgricuJtural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh during the period from April to July, 2007. The experiment was conducted with two factors, factor A: cowdung with different levels (C0= no manure.C,= 9 t/ha,C2= J 0 t/ha.C,« 11 t/ha) and factor B: poultry litter with different levels (P0= no rnanure.P,= 7 tlha,P2=8 t/ha.P,= 9 tlha). The two factors experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). The result of the experiment revealed that plant height, number of leaves per plant, leaf length, leaf breadth, petiole length, pod length, pod weight, number of pod per plant, pod yield per plant, pod yield per plot, pod yield per hectare were significantly influenced by the different levels or cowdung and poultry litter. The highest level of cowdung ( 11 ton/ha) produced the highest plant height (71.66 cm.), number of leaves (17.71), leaf length (18.70 cm.), leaf breadth (25.54 cm.), green pod yield/plot (2.98 kg), pod yield/ha (8.30 ton) while the lowest green pod yield/pot ( 1.98 kg), pod yield/ha (5.51 ton) were produced from control treatment. The highest level of poultry litter (9 ton/ha) gave the highest plant height (61.73 cm.), number of leaves (16.54), leaf length (17.14 cm.), leaf breadth (22.l3cm.), green pod yield/plot (2.62 kg), pod yield/ha (7.30 ton) and the lowest green pod yield/pot (2.18 kg), pod yield/ha (6.18 ton) were produced from control treatment. The combined effect of different levels of cowdung and poultry litter also found significant. The maximum plant height (76.88 cm.), number of leaves ( 18.16), leaf length ( 19.52 cm.), leaf breadth (26.48 cm.), pod yield/plot (3.24 kg), pod yield/ha (9 ton) was obtained from the treatment combination of C3P3 (application of 11 tlha cowdung with 9 t/ha poultry litter). The lowest pod yield/ha (5 ton) was recorded from C0P0 (where cowdung and poultry litter were not applied).