PERFORMANCE OF NITROGEN AND PHOSPHORUS ON THE GROWTH AND YIELD OF INDIAN SPINACH (Basella alba L.) ON ROOF TOP GARDEN

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.