Impact of Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) on growth and Economic Yield of Okra

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted to study the integrated nutrient management (INM) in okra. A total of twenty seven treatment of INM (including control) with three replications viz. T1 (150 kg N + 60 kg P2O5 + 60 kg K2O/ha) T2 (90 kg N +30 kg P2O5 + 30 kg K2O + 10 tones FYM/ha) T3 (75kg N + 40 kg P2O5 + 40 kg K2O + 10 tones FYM + 20 kg ZnSO4/ha) T4 (90 kg N + 30 kg P2O5 + 30 kg K2O + 5 tones VC/ha) T5 (75kg N +40 kg P2O5 + 40 kg K2O + 5 tones VC + 20 Kg ZnSO4/ha) T6 (10 tones VC + 20 kg ZnSO4/ha) T7 (15 tones FYM + 20 kg ZnSO4/ha) T8 (Control – no NPK, FYM, VC, ZnSO4) have been applied to test the growth and yield of okra under agro climatic conditions of Meerut region. Among all the treatments, treatment T5 gave maximum plant height (84.70 cm), number of nodes (18.94), number of pods per plant (15.07), length of pod (14.31 cm), diameter of pod (1.69), fresh weight of the plant (352.24 gm) dry weight of the plant (286.14 gm) yield of green pods (72 gm per plant) followed by Treatment T4 & minimum under control T8. Gross income Rs. (58600), net return Rs. (25677) and cost: benefit ratio (1:0.77) was also recorded with T5. The treatment i.e. T5 (75kg N +40 kg P2O5 + 40 kg K2O + 5 tones VC + 20 ZnSO4/ha) showed a comparatively better result of growth and yield than other treatments. This study suggests that vermicompost manure which contains the micronutrients with minimum inorganic manure may be a potential source for better growth and high yield in okra.