EFFECT OF NITROGEN, PHOSPHORUS AND FARMYARD MANURE LEVELS ON YIELD, YIELD COMPONENTS AND SOME MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS OF POTATO (SOLANUM TUBEROSUM L.)

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out to evaluate the effect of inorganic fertilizer (Nitrogen and Phosphorus), and farmyard manure on morpho-physiological parameters of potato. Randomized Complete Block Design with five treatments (T1: Urea; T2: Nitrophos; T3: Di-ammonium Phosphate (DAP); T4: farmyard manure (FYM) and T5: Control Treatment) were used. Each treatment is replicated 4 times. The result showed that fertilizers significantly affect the number of compound leaves, flowers, number and length of lateral stem plant -1 and length, girth and weight of potato tubers. The plant treated with DAP showed a plant height of 83.49 cm while the control treatment showed the lowest plant height (59.33 cm). The plant treated with farmyard manure showed a stem girth of 5.25 cm, while the lowest stem girth was observed in control. The highest tuber weight (100.42 g) was noted under the treatment of Urea, followed by Nitrophos (98.80 g), DAP (78.97 g) and farmyard manure (75.97 g). Total tuber weight per plant 622.95g, 549.45 g, 423.41 g, and 401.74 g under Urea, Nitrophos, DAP and farmyard manure were observed respectively. In addition, the highest Girth of potato tuber (14.44 cm) was observed at T2 Treatment (Nitrophas). It is concluded that using inorganic fertilizers and farmyard manure would be beneficial for achieving sustainable yields.