Nitrogen management in okra through neem coated urea

Abstract

A two-year investigation was carried out to examine the effect of nitrogen on growth and yield of okra with fourteen treatments containing different combinations of organic (vermicompost and farm yard manure) and inorganic (urea and neem coated urea) sources of nitrogen replicated thrice at Vegetable Research Centre of G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand in summer seasons of year 2016 and 2017. Observations for plant height, stem diameter, per plant number of leaves, primary branches and nodes at 45 days after sowing (DAS), leaf area at 60 DAS, green pod length and diameter, average weight of green pod, number of green pods and green pod yield plant-1 were recorded. The findings revealed that among all others, treatments T10 (Recommended dose of nitrogen, RDN- 100% through neem coated urea + 2.5 t ha-1 vermicompost) and T6 (RDN- 75% through neem coated urea + 25% through vermicompost) were found best with respect to improvement in plant growth and yield characters. The highest number and yield of green pods per plant were recorded under treatments T6 (25.8 and 293.3 g plant-1) and T10 (23.3 and 294.7 g plant-1) as compared to other treatments. Hence, it can be concluded that application of neem coated urea along with vermicompost could be recommended for obtaining higher yield of okra in summer season under lowland regions of India.