Abstract:
The field experiment was conducted at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka,
Bangladesh during the period from March to June 2006 to study the effect of different levels
of nitrogen and potassium on growth and yield of stem amaranth. The experiment considered
two factors. viz., Four levels of nitrogen (0 kg N/ha (Control), 90 kg N/ha, 100 kg N/ha, 110
kg N/ha) and four levels of potassium (0 kg K20/ha (Control), 120 kg K20/ha, 130 kg
K20lha, 140 kg K20/ha). A statistically significant variation was recorded in respect of all
characters in relation with different levels of nitrogen at 30, 45, 60 and 75 DAS. At 75 DAS
N3 gave the maximum plant height (107.90 cm), diameter of stem (26.81 mm), number of
leaves per plant (45.90), length of leaf (26.18 cm), petiole length (10.14 cm) and petiole
diameter (3.70 mm), yield (60.79 t/ha), while the control treatment gave the lowest value.
Potassium fertilizer showed a statistically significant variation in terms of characters at 30,
45, 60 and 75 DAS. At 75 DAS treatment K3 gave the maximum plant height (106.53 cm),
stem diameter (25.38 mm), number of leaves per plant (44.95), length of leaf (25.51 cm),
petiole length (9.80 cm) and petiole diameter (3.63 mm), yield (67.67 t/ha), while the control
treatment gave the lowest value. The combined effect showed significant differences. The
maximum growth and yield was performed with the combination N3K3 and the minimum was
obtained in control condition i.e. N0Ko. The highest (3.02) benefit cost ratio was obtained
from treatment combination N3K3 and the lowest (0. 76) was found from control treatment.
