INFLUENCE OF IRRIGATION, FERTILIZER DOSE AND PLANT DENSITY ON THE YIELD OF SOYBEAN

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at the Agronomy field Laboratory of Sher- e– Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207 during the period from December, 2011 to April 2012 to study the influence of different levels of irrigation, fertilizer dose and plant density on the growth and yield of soybean. The experiment comprised two doses of fertilizer viz. twenty percent lower of the recommended dose, and the recommended dose (Urea, TSP and MP @ 60, 175 and 120 kg ha , respectively) and two levels of irrigation viz. irrigated and no irrigated and three types of plant density viz recommended (44 plants/m 2 ), twenty percent lower and plus twenty percent greater of the recommended density. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications. The results showed that there was significantly higher soil moisture in the irrigated-fertilized (47.53%), irrigated with recommended density plots (49.96%) and irrigated-fertilized plots having higher density plots (52.8%) in comparison to the that in the non irrigated plots (33.85%). Significantly the highest exudation rate was obtained in the irrigatedfertilized with the highest populated plots (0.077 g/hr) in comparison to the lowest

of

non irrigated-fertilized recommended density plots (0.02 g/hr). Irrigatedfertilized plots having lower to recommended density showed highest plant height

(37 cm), leaf area (147 cm 2 /plant), dry weight (6-8 g/plant) and no. of pods/plant (8-10). Significantly the highest seed yield of 1.00-1.04 t/ha were obtained in irrigated-fertilized plots having recommended or higher density. -1