Abstract:
The experiment was conducted on the roof top of Biotechnology Department of
Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, during the period from September
2016 to January 2017 to optimizing the appropriate levels of nitrogen (N) from
urea and phosphorus (P
2
O
5
) from TSP on growth and yield of Indian Spinach. The
experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three
replications having two factors viz., Factor A: Three levels of nitrogen (N) i.e. N
0
(0 kg N ha
-1
or Control), N
1
(120 kg N ha
ii
-1
), N
2
(180 kg N ha
-1
); and Factor B:
Three levels of phosphorus (P
2
O
5
) i.e. P
0
(0 kg P
2
O
5
ha
-1
or Control), P
1
(120 kg
P
2
O
5
ha
-1
), P
2
(140 kg P
2
O
5
ha
-1
). The seeds of Indian Spinach (BARI Puishak -2)
were collected from Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI),
Joydebpur, Gazipur. A statistically significant variation was observed in respect
of all characters at different days after sowing (DAS) in relation with different
levels of nitrogen and phosphorous application. The doses of N
2
treatment showed
the maximum plant height (96.62 cm), number of branches per plant (17.97),
number of leaves per plant (93.21), leaf area (254.49 cm
2
), yield per plot (947.81g
plot
-1
), yield per hectare (20.43 ton), while the control treatment gave the lowest
values. The doses of P
2
treatment showed the maximum plant height (84.58 cm),
number of branches per plant (16.27), number of leaves per plant (84.23), leaf area
(216.43 cm
2
), yield per plot (887.87 g plot
-1
), yield per hectare (19.06 ton), while
the control treatment gave the lowest values. The combined effect also showed
significant differences. Among the treatment combinations, N
2
P
2
(180 kg N ha
+
140 kg P
2
O
5
ha
-1
) showed the maximum plant height (98.21 cm), number of
branches per plant (18.75), number of leaves per plant (95.56), leaf area (266.56
cm
2
), yield per plot (970.22 g plot
-1
), yield per hectare (20.9 ton), while the control
treatment gave the lowest value. The over all result suggests that N
2
treatment and
P
2
treatment can be applied to boost up the production of Indian Spinach.