STUDY ON GROWTH AND YIELD PERFORMANCE OF SOME EXOTIC SWEET POTATO VARIETIES IN RESPONSE TO DIFFERENT RECOMMENDED FERTILIZER DOSES

Abstract

Addition of soil amendments and side-dressing of fertilizers is very crucial to provide soil optimal for healthy growth and higher yield of sweet potato. Therefore, the present experiment was conducted at the Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University Farm, Dhaka-1207 during May 2018 to April 2019 to observe the yield performance of sweet potato varieties as well as to optimize fertilizer dose for sweet potato cultivation. In this experiment four sweet potato varieties (three exotic and one local) viz., Annoh-Beni, Annoh-Kogane, Kokei, BARI Sweet potato12, and three fertilizer doses viz., control (no chemical fertilizer and no compost), BARI recommended fertilizer dose and maruhisa (chemical fertilizer + improved compost) were included as treatments following randomized complete block design with three replications. Morpho-physiological characters, yield attributes and yield of sweet potato were significantly influenced by variety and fertilizer doses. At vegetative growth stages, the highest plant height (186.60 cm) was found in 100 DAP in BARI Sweet potato 12 with BARI recommended fertilizer doses. Whereas, the highest number of branch plant -1 (7.40), number of leaves plant -1 (118.60) were found in BARI Sweet potato 12 with maruhisa (chemical fertilizer +

improved compost). The highest tuber length (20.61cm), tuber plant -1 (.97 kg), and yield (32.55 t ha iii

-1 ) were recorded from the treatment Kokei with maruhisa (Chemical fertilizer +

improved compost). While the highest tuber diameter (17.75) was found in BARI Sweet potato 12 with BARI recommended fertilizer dose. The lowest value of tuber length (9.48 cm), tuber plant 1 (), and yield (6.86 t ha -1 ) were recorded from the treatment Annoh-Kogane in control condition. The highest dry weight (39.33) was recorded in the combination AnnohKogane

with maruhisa (Chemical fertilizer +

improved compost), and the lowest (32.66) one in BARI Sweet potato 12 in control condition. The highest TSS (14.26 %) was found in Kokei in control treatment, and the lowest (11.56 %) one in Annohkogane

in BARI recommended dose. Both on the results, Kokei with maruhisa (Chemical fertilizer +

improved compost) was the best fertilizer dose in term of yield attribute and yield of sweet potato