Effect of spacing and variety on biomass production and quality of Moringa oleifera L.

Abstract

Moringa (Moringa oleifera Lam), is a multipurpose tree that has gained considerable attention due to its exceptional nutritional and medicinal properties. This experiment was done at the Cattle Research Farm, Pachutia, Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute (BLRI), Savar, Bangladesh during the period from August 2019 to August 2020 at three cutting intervals. This study investigated how different planting distances and varieties affect the yield and quality of moringa biomass as well as quality. Sixteen treatments combining four varieties and four planting spacings were tested at three cutting intervals. The experiment was laid out by following Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four replications. The maximumvariety, followed by Paraynal at 82.52%. The Paraynal variety, (1×1.5 feet), treatment T7, produced the highest plant height (213.4 cm), maximum leaves (46), thickest stems (6.9 cm), maximum survival rate (96.9%), with the highest biomass (138.2 t/ha), and crude protein (19.8%). Among different cutting interval, maximum plant height, stem girth and biomass yield were found at 220 DAT cutting interval among all treatments. The Black variety with wider spacing showed the lowest germination rate (77.09%), stem girth (1.7cm), biomass yield (27 t/ha) and crude protein (14.6%) at different cutting interval. Thus, the Paraynal variety at 1×1.5 feet spacing perhaps consider as the best treatment for optimum moringa biomass production with better quality. germination rate at 83.98% was found in PKM1