Yield, Quality and vigour of bhindi seed as influenced by number of harvests and nutrient sources

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at the College of Agriculture, Vellayani to study the influence of vegetable harvests and nitrogen sources on the seed yield and quality in hbindi. The treatments consisted of combinations of four different number of vegetable harvests (0, 2, 4, 6) and four sources (12 t FYM + 110:37:74 kg N, P2o5 and K2o ha-1, 12 t FYM + 3.6 t poultry manure, 12 t FYM + 11 t vermicompost and 6 t FYM + 110:37:74 kg N, P2o5 and K2o ha-1. The results revealed that growth characters of bhindi crop were not significantly influenced vegetable harvests except for the height 90 DAS. Frequent picking of green fruits in bhidndi improved the bearing capacity of the plant but the mature fruit yield, seed yield and quality were significantly reduced. Highest seed yield was observed with zero vegetable harvest bur was on par with two vegetable harvests. Among the seed characters, germination percentage, 1000 seed weight, 100 seed volume, seed protein and seed moisture content were not significantly influenced by the vegetable harvests while seedling root and shoot length and vigour index values were better for two vegetable harvest treatments. This treatment apart from a good yield of quality seeds, yielded some vegetable also. The effect of the sources of nitrogen on the germination percentage, seedling root and shoot length and vigour index was not significant while mother crop growth parameters, mature fruit yield and seed yield were significantly high when organic manures were used in conjuction with chemical fertilisers. Farm yard manure at 12 or 6 t coupled with chemical fertilisers gave statistically similar results with regard to the seed yield and quality. Considering the economics, better profits could always be realised when FYM was applied along with chemical fertilisers without any vegetable harvest but, for a satisfactory yield of quality seed and some vegetable, this source should be combined with two vegetable harvests.