EFFECT OF DIFFERENT ORGANIC SOURCES OF NUTRIENTS AND HARVESTING STAGE ON THE GROWTH YIELD AND QUALITY OF OKRA

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at the farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka during the period of April 2006 to August 2006 to investigate the effect of organic sources of nutrients and harvesting stage on the growth, yield and quality of okra. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The experiment consists of two factors. factor A. sources of nutnents (-+ 1: pcs) namely nu manure. cowdung. poultry lurer and form yard manure (FY~1) and factor B: harvcxtinu stauc H level) \ iz. harvcsunu at 5 dav-. 7. 9 and 11 davs alter '- - ~ -- flower anthcsis. The organic sources had significant cllcct on all \ icld contributing characters and : icld of okra like. plant height. plant diameters. number of leaves. number ot branches per plant. tear length. leaf' breadth. petiole length. pod length. pod diameter. pod weight, number or pod per plant. : icld per plant and : icld per hectare except number of' day s to first tlov, cring. I Ian csung stages also had sigru ficaru influence on the ubov c parameters except plant diameter and petiole length. Poultry Inter gave the best : ield (9.54t ha) followed b) I Y\1 (8.87uha). On the other hand. frequent harvesting viz. 5 <la: stage enhanced plant height. number ot leav cs. number of branches per plant. leaf length and leaf breadth. It also produced the tenderest green pod. I.k' en Ja: stage gave best result for pod length. pod diameter and pod weight hut decreased number or pod per plant \\ hich re .... ultcd less ) ield (8.32t ha) than 7 day stage (8.87 t/ha). \c\en day stage pod gave the highest yield (8.87 t ha) and helter marketable quality. ( ornbindly poultry litter \\ ith 5 <la) harv csting stage showed the best grov, th but the most tender and immature fruit. Poultry litter with 7 <la: harv esting stage gave the highest y ield (I 0. 11 t/ha > and acceptable quality. It al ... o gave the highest benefit cost ratio (I .45).