EFFECT OF NITROGEN AND POTASSIUM ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF TWO GARLIC GENOTYPE

Md. Shamim 1 and M. A. Rahim 2 . 1. Additional Deputy Director (Crop) Dinajpur District, Department of Agricultural Extension, Ministry of Agriculture, People's Republic of Bangladesh. 2. Department of Horticulture, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh. ...................................................................................................................... Manuscript Info Abstract ......................... ........................................................................ Manuscript History Received: 03 September 2018 Final Accepted: 05 October 2018 Published: November 2018 A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the interaction effect of nitrogen and potassium on growth and yield related characters of two garlic varieties at the of Spices Research Center, Bogra during november 2000 to march 2001. The experiment consists of two garmplasm i.e. Accession G19 and G20 with four levels of nitrogen (0, 100, 200, 300 kg N ha -1 ) and potassium (0, 100, 200, 300 kg K2O ha -1 ). The three factorial experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Results demonstrated that there was significant variation present among the studied treatments. Between the varieties, accession G20 showed the best performance (8.08 t ha -1 ). The solitary application both of N and K2O also increase the growth and yield of garlic at considerable amount. Among the treatments the highest bulb yield was achieved by using 200 kg ha -1 of N and K2O (9.62 and 8.61 t ha -1 respectively). This study suggested that the treatment combination of accession G20 with 200 kg N ha -1 and 200 kg K2O ha -1 will be more profitable (11.03 t ha -1 ) than any other studied treatment combinations.


Materials And Method:-
The experiment was conducted at the farm of Spices Research Center, Bogra from november 2000 to march 2001 with a view to investigating the effect of nitrogen, potassium and garmplasm on the growth and yield of garlic. The three factorial experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. In each block, the land was divided into 32 plots and each plot size was 1.2 m x 1.0 m. The space between the blocks and plots were 1.0 m and 350 cm, respectively. The selected accessions of garlic cloves were placed at a depth of 2 cm in the soil with the use of a pointed stick. The organic matter content of the experimental plot was low and acidic in nature. The total N and exchangeable K status of the soil were also low. Ten days before the clove planting, the entire quantity of well decomposed cow dung and TSP @15 ton and 120 kg ha -1 were applied at final land preparation. Urea and MoP were applied as a source of nitrogen and potassium at two split date (30 and 60 days after planting) as top dressing. Garlic seeds were planted in the first week of november. Intercultural operations were done as per required. Data on plant growth, yield parameters, and bulb yield were recorded. The mean for all treatments were calculated and the analyses of variances for most of the characters under consideration were performed by 'f 'variance test. The significance of the difference between pairs of means was expressed as least significance different (LSD) test taking the probability level 5% as the minimum unit of significance (Gomez and Gomez, 1984).

Plant height
Garlic varieties showed significant variation (P < 0.01) on the mean plant height at different days after planting (Table 02). Height of plant from both garmplasm showed an increasing trend up to 90 DAP ( Fig. 1). At 90 DAP, the higher plant height (51.97 cm) was obtained from Accession G 2, and the lower (49.75 cm) from Accession G 1 . Fig. 3 and Fig. 5 showed among the different treatment of N and P, the rate of 200 kg N ha -1 (55.36 cm) and 200 kg K 2 O ha -1 (47.96 cm) gave the maximum plant height respectively and minimum from the control treatment (P< 0.01). The positive and significant association of garlic to nitrogen has also been reported by many authors (Brabma and Yousuf, 2008;Talukder et al., 1998;Uddin, 1993;Setty et al., 1989;Soto, 1988). The interaction effect between nitrogen and potassium relating to plant height was also found to be significant (Table 02). At 90 DAP, the highest plant height (57.86 cm) was found in the treatment combination of 200 kg N ha -1 and 200 kg K 2 O ha -1 , with Accession G 2 and the lowest plant height (38.15 cm) was observed from 0 kg N ha -1 and 0 kg K 2 O ha -1 treatment combination (Table 07).

Number of green leaves plant -1
Accession G 2 produced the highest number of green leaves per plant (8.13) where Accession G 1 produced the lowest (7.67) at 90 DAP (Fig. 2 (Table 07). Karic et al., (2005) investigated the response of leek to different levels of nitrogen and observed no effect on the number of leaves per plant in all N levels.

Number of cloves bulb -1
Significant variation was observed among the accessions about the number of cloves per bulb (  (22.12) produced the maximum number of cloves per bulb while minimum from the control treatment at harvest (Table 02, 03 and 04). This is an agreement with the reports of several authors (Hossain, 1997;Talukder, 1998). The treatment combination of accession G 2 with 200 kg N ha -1 and with 200 kg K 2 O ha -1 produced the maximum number of cloves per bulb (24.68 and 23.55 respectively), and the minimum (15.40 and 13.88 respectively) was observed from the combination of Accession G 1 with 0 kg N ha -1 (Table 07). The result exhibited that the higher number of cloves per bulb was obtained due to the higher nutrient availability in soil, which enhanced the growth and development of the bulb.

Fresh weight of individual bulb
Significant variation was observed in fresh weight of the individual bulb at harvest between the garmplasm (Table  02). The maximum fresh weight of the individual bulb (12.97 g) was observed in Accession G 2, and the minimum (12.05 g) was in Accession G 1 (Table 03). It may be due to that Accession G 2 gave the higher vegetative growth as well as leaf number. Among the treatment 200 kg N ha -1 (15.41 g) and 200 kg K 2 O ha -1 (13.70 g) gave maximum fresh weight of individual bulb and minimum result was obtained from the control treatment (Table 03). Setty et al., (1989) found the higher weight of the bulb from higher nitrogen levels up to the level of 200 kg N ha -1 . The was significant variation among the combination of garmplasm and different levels of nitrogen in the fresh weight of individual bulb. The fresh weight of the individual bulb varied from 8.95 g to 16.13 g. The highest fresh weight of the individual bulb (16.13 g) was obtained from the treatment combination of accession G 2 with 200 kg N ha -1 (16.13 g) and 200 kg K 2 O ha -1 (14.09 g), whereas the lowest was observed in the accession G 1 with 0 kg N ha -1 and 0 kg K 2 O ha -1 (Table 07).

Bulb yield
In relation to bulb yield, the studied accessions and the treatment showed significant variation (Table 02). The higher bulb per plot (0.97 kg) was produced by the Accession G 2 and lower from Accession G 1 (0.90 kg) ( Table 03). The higher yield obtained from Accession G 2, was due probably due to the production of larger bulbs.  (1989) and Amin (1998). The combined effect of garmplasm and different levels of potassium in respect of yield per plot and yield per hectare was found to be significant ( Fig. 7 and 8). The maximum yield per plot (1.32 kg) was recorded from the treatment combination of accession G 2 with 200 kg N ha -1 and the minimum (0.48 kg) from accession G 1 with 0 kg N ha -1 and 0 kg K 2 O ha -1 (Table 07). There was no significant interaction effect of garmplasm, nitrogen and potassium on bulb yield per plot (Table 02).

Conclusion:-
The growth and yield parameters of this research indicated that the varieties had significant differences in the studied characters. Between the varieties, accession G 20 showed best performance by producing vegetative growth and higher bulb yields. The outcome of N and P fertilizer application on the performance of different garlic varieties suggested that both the fertilizer significantly enhanced plant height, produced the bulbs of greater marketable yield, total bulb yield. Among the different treatments, the highest bulb yield was achieved by using 200 kg ha -1 of N and K. It was apparent from the above result that the treatment combination of accession G 20 with 200 kg N ha -1 and 200 kg K 2 O ha -1 was more profitable that the rest of the treatment combinations.