EFFECT OF NITROGEN LEVELS AND PLANT DENSITY ON SEED YIELD AND YIELD COMPONENTS OF CORIANDER (Coriandrum sativum L.)

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at the farm of Sher- E- Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka from November 2014 to February 2015 to find out the optimum nitrogen levels and suitable plant density for higher yield of coriander. The experiment consists of four levels of nitrogen viz. 0, 40, 80 and 120 kg N ha-1 and three plants densities viz. 500×103, 400×103 and 333×103 plants ha-1 as maintained by 20× 10, 25 ×10 and 30× 10 cm spacing. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design. Nitrogen and plant density independently as well as in combination had significant effect on most of the characters studied. The tallest plant and maximum number of leaves plant-1 were recorded at 120 kg N ha-1 followed by 80 kg N ha-1 at different growth stages. Application of 120 kg N ha-1 gave the maximum primary and secondary branches plant-1, umbellates umbel-1, seed plant-1, 1000 seed weight, seed yield plot-1 and seed yield ( 1.46 ton ha-1). Application of 80 kg N ha-1 produced identical results in respect of primary and secondary branches plant-1, umbellates umbel--1, seed plant-1, and 1000 seed weight. The highest plant height, seed yield (1.27 ton ha-1) was recorded from 333×103 plants ha-1. Application of 120 kg N ha-1 coupled with 333×103 plants ha-1 gave the maximum seed yield of 1.5 ton ha-1 closely followed by 400×103 plants ha-1 at the same nitrogen dose.