Nitrogen and Phosphorous Fertlizer Management to Enhance Turnip (Brassica Rapa) Procuction in Field

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during 2013 to examine the production response of turnip to different levels of nitrogenous and phosphatic fertilizers at the experimental fields of the Horticulture Garden, Department of Horticulture, Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam. Treatments included: T1=0-0 kg ha-1, T2=75-50 kg ha-1, T3=75-75 kg ha-1, T4=100-50 kg ha-1, T5=100-75 kg ha-1, T6=125-50 kg ha-1 and     T7=125-75 kg ha-1. Turnip variety “Purple Top White Globe” was used in this study. Our results revealed that the effect of various levels of nitrogenous and phosphatic fertilizers on plant height, leaves plant-1, fresh weight of leaves plant-1, single turnip root weight, root yield plot-1 and root yield ha-1 was statistically significant (P<0.05). The turnip crop fertilized with N-P levels of 125-75 kg ha-1 resulted in 40.67 cm plant height, 15.86 leaves plant-1, 81.74 g fresh weight of leaves plant-1, 113.62 g single turnip root weight, 7.35 kg root yield plot-1 and 14690.88 kg root yield ha-1. The turnips given N-P fertilizers at the rate of 125-50 kg ha-1 produced 40.00 cm plant height, 15.60 leaves plant-1, 80.40 g fresh weight of leaves plant-1, 111.76 g single turnip root weight, 7.23 kg root yield plot-1 and 14450.23 kg root yield ha-1. The crop fertilized with N-P levels of 100-75 kg ha-1 produced 35.00 cm plant height, 13.65 leaves plant-1, 70.35g fresh weight of leaves plant-1, 97.79 g single turnip root weight, 6.32 kg root yield plot-1 and 12643.79 kg root yield ha-1. The turnips given N-P levels at the rate of 100-50, 75-75, 75-50 kg ha-1 and control, resulted in lower values for all the growth and root yield contributing traits. It was concluded that the differences in all the growth and yield parameters of turnip fertilized with N-P levels of 125-75 kg and 125-50 kg ha-1 was non-significant (P<0.05) and hence, 125-50 kg ha-1 N-P level was considered as an optimum level for economical turnip production.

Keywords: Turnip, Productivity, Levels, Nitrogen and Phosphorous