Abstract:
An experiment was conducted at the Agronomy field of Sher-e-Bangla
Agricultural University, Dhaka during March to June 2017 to study the
influence of fertilizer and spacing on the yield performance of baby corn. Four
levels of fertilizer doses viz. F
1
= Recommended doses of fertilizer (RDF), F
=
20% less than RDF, F
3
= 40% less than RDF and F
= 20% higher than RDF
and three levels of plant spacing viz. S
1
4
= 60 cm × 25 cm, S
= 50 cm × 25 cm
and S
3
2
= 40 cm × 25 cm were the treatments for the experiment. The
experiment was laid out in a split-plot design with three replications having
fertilizer doses in the main plot and plant spacing in the sub-plot. The nutrients;
N, P, K, S and Zn were applied from the sources of urea, TSP, MoP, gypsum
and ZnSO
4
respectively at the rate of 300, 150, 100, 150 and 10 kg ha
,
respectively which was considered as recommended doses of fertilizer (RDF).
Hybrid baby corn was used as a test crop for the study. Results revealed that
fertilizer treatment F
(20% higher than RDF) showed the highest fresh cob
yield ha
-1
4
(9.26 t) whereas, the lowest (6.52 tha
-1
) was from F
(40% less than
RDF). Again, plant spacing with S
3
3
(40 cm × 25 cm) produce the highest fresh
cob yield ha
-1
(9.01 t) while the S
(60 cm × 25 cm) produce the lowest (7.14 t).
The interaction, F
4
S
3
1
showed significantly the highest fresh cob yield (10.10 t
ha
-1
) which was attributed to the maximum number of cobs ha
(270.00
thousand) and it also produced the maximum stover yield ha
(11.12 t),
biological yield ha
-1
(21.22 t) and harvest index (47.60%). On the contrary, the
minimum fresh cob yield was produced by the interaction, F
3
S
).
For more precise results such trials need to be made in other agro climatic
regions of Bangladesh. The highest gross return (Tk. 303000), net return (Tk.
137759) and BCR (1.83) were also obtained from the treatment combination of
F
4
S
3
. But the lowest were obtained from the treatment combination of F
(40% less than RDF with 40 cm × 25 cm plant spacing).
