Effect of Nitrogen on The Growth and Yield Performance of Three Mustard Varieties

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at the Field Laboratory of Agrotechnology Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna from November, 2007 to February, 2008 to study the effect of nitrogen on the growth and yield performance of mustard. The experiment consisted of four levels of nitrogen viz. 0, 46.5, 93 and 139.5 kg N ha⁻¹ as well as three varieties of mustard viz. BARI Sharisha-11, BARI Sharisha-12 and BARI Sharisha-13 as treatments. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with two factors. The seeds were sown @ 9 kg ha⁻¹ on 06 November, 2007 by using line sowing method. Harvesting was done at physiological maturity stage. Data were collected on growth characters such as plant height, leaf number and yield contributing characters such as branch number plant⁻¹, siliqua length, seed number siliqua⁻¹, seed yield, stover yield and biological yield. BARI Sharisha-11 performed well regarding plant height (120.09 cm), leaf number (67.35), number of branches plant⁻¹ (17.80), total number of siliqua per plant (291.4), seed yield (2.16 t ha⁻¹), stover yield (2.04 t ha⁻¹), biological yield (4.20 t ha⁻¹), harvest index (50.84%) and 1000-seed weight (3.60 g) than other varieties. The highest number of primary branches, secondary branches, total branches plant⁻¹ (19.22), total siliqua plant⁻¹ (411.87), seed number siliqua⁻¹ (18.18), siliqua length (5.27 cm), 1000-seed weight (3.66 g), seed yield (2.95 t ha⁻¹), stover yield (2.62 t ha⁻¹), biological yield (5.96 t ha⁻¹) and harvest index (52.97 %) were found where nitrogen was applied @ 139.5 kg ha⁻¹. The interaction effect of nitrogen and variety was varied significantly at all parameters of growth and yield attributes except plant height and leaf number at 10 DAS and 1000-seed weight. BARI Sharisha-11 fertilized with 139.5 kg N ha⁻¹ exhibited the best performances in case of most of the parameters.