EFFECT OF ORGANIC AND INORGANIC FERTILIZERS ON THE GROWTH AND YIELD OF BROCCOLI (Brassica oleracea var. italica L)

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at the Horticulture Farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka 1207, Bangladesh, during November 2021 to March 2022 to find out the effect of organic and inorganic fertilizer managements for the growth and yield of broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica). The experiment comprised 9 different treatments of organic and inorganic fertilizer and their combination viz., T 0 : Control (without fertilizer); T 1 : Cow dung (CD) @ 15 ton/ha; T 2 : Recommend fertilizer dose @ CD 10 t N 150 kg P 150 : Vermicompost @ 10 ton/ha and Trichoderma @ 22 kg/ha; T 4 : Vermicompost @ 10 ton/ha and biochar 150 kg/ha; T 5 : Kitchen compost @ 8 ton/ha; T 6 kg K 120 kg/ha : Mushroom compost @ 5 ton/ha; T 7 : Vermicompost (50%) + Cowdung (50%) and T 8 : Mushroom Spent compost @ 5 ton/ha (60%) + Vermicompost (20%) + Trichoderma (20%) and experiment was setup in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. A positive impact of each fertilizer was observed on vegetative growth and yield of the crop. Early curd initiation (44.33 days after transplanting), maximum curd diameter (13.58 cm), maximum weight of primary curd (344.2 g), maximum number of secondary curd (6.67), maximum weight of secondary curd (210 g), maximum dry matter content (9.86%) of curd, highest yield plant -1 (550 g), yield plot -1 (4.95 kg) and yield ha

(26.76 t) were found from T 2 treatment, while the control treatment gave the lowest. The highest benefit cost ratio (3.40) was noted from T 2 and the lowest (1.21) from T 4 . Considering the differences between different organic fertilizers with the recommended dose, the lowest differences of plant height (1.57 cm) at 60 DAT, diameter (0.33 cm) of primary curd, weight (26.1 g) of primary curd, per plant yield (21.9 g) and yield (1.07 t/ha) of broccoli over the recommended dose was observed in T 8 treatment. Considering the sustainable yield, application of recommend fertilizer dose @ CD 10 kg/ha seemed to be more promising for broccoli cultivation and among the organic fertilizers, the combination Mushroom Spent compost @ 5 ton/ha (60%) + Vermicompost (20%) + Trichoderma (20%) was best in respect of plant growth and yield.