EFFECT OF ORGANIC AND INORGANIC FERTILIZERS ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF CHINESE CABBAGE (Brassica campestris var. pekinensis)

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at Horticulture Fann of Sher-e Bangla Agricultural University, Dbaka, Bangladesh during the period from October 2006 to January 2007 lo study the effect of organic manure and nitrogen fertilizer on growth and yield of chinesc cabbage. The experiment had two factors viz. four levels of organic manure of cowdung and "three levels of nitrogen. The experiment was laid out in the two factors Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. Data on different yield components and yield of chincse cabbage were recorded. Statistically significant variation was recorded in all characters due to the di ITercnt cowdung used as organic manure. The highest values were recorded for plant height (26.21 cm), plant spread (47.27 cm), number of folded leaves per plant (32.22), head weight ( 1.50 kg) and gross (69.77 t/ha) and marketable (62.55 t/ha) yield for cowdung used as organic manure@ 20 ton per hectare (OM3)and the lowest value was recorded from OM0 as control. Nitrogen fertilizer showed significant differences in all characters. The highest values were recorded for plant height (25.30 cm), plant spread (45.96 cm), number of folded leaves per plant (30.91 ), head weight ( 1.57 kg) and gross (65.44 t/ha) and marketable (59.03 t/ha) yield from nitrogen I 50 kg per ha (N2) and the lowest value was recorded from control. Interaction effect between organic manure and nitrogen fertilizer also showed significant differences in yield and yield contributing characters in case of OM3N2 ( cowdung 20 ton and nitrogen 150 kg per ha), while the treatment OMoNo (no cowdung + no nitrogen) performed the lowest value. The highest gross and net return was obtained from the treatment combination of OM3N2 and the lowest gross (Tk. 413,340) and net (Tk. 3 78, 360) return were obtained in treatment combination OMoNo. The highest (2.43) benefit cost ratio was noted from the treatment combination OM3N2 and the lowest ( 1.72) obtained from the treatment OM0N0•