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Use of Plant Residues for Improving Pod Chemical Composition, Biochemical Quality and Pod Yield of Okra (Abelmoschus esculentum L.)

Moyin Jesu, E.I.

Pertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural Science, Volume 29, Issue 1&2, March 2006

Keywords: Plant residues, Abelmoschus esculentum L., fertilizer treatment

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The effect of wood ash, saw dust, ground cocoa husk, spent grain and rice bran used ordinarily on the okra pod, chemical composition, biochemical quality and pod yield of okra (Abelmoschus esculentum Moench) variety NHAe-47 was studied. Five organic fertilizer treatments were compared to a chemical fertilizer (1,600 kg/ha NPK 15-15-15) and unfertilized controls in four field experiments. The treatments were replicated four times and arranged in a randomized complete block design for each experiment. The chemical composition of the organic materials, pod nutrients, biochemical quality, and pod yield of okra were determined for the different treatments. The results showed that the application of6 t/ha of plant residues significantly (P<0.05) increased the pod yield, N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Na, ash, crude protein and pod yield of okra compared to the control treatment. Wood ash, cocoa husk and spent grain were the most effective in improving pod yield, pod nutrient status and biochemical quality while the rice bran and saw dust were least effective. The plant residues produced better pod Ca, Mg and Na contents than the NPK 15-15-15 fertilizer treatment. Spent grain increased okra pod Ca, Mg and Na by 98, 94 and 69% more respectively compared to NPK fertilizer. Only spent grain significantly increased the pod ash compared to NPK fertilizer. Among the plant residues, wood ash had the highest values of pod N, K, Ca and Mg followed by cocoa husk, spent grain, rice bran and saw dust treatments respectively. Wood ash increased pod N, K, Ca and Mg by 50, 70, 72 and 52 % more respectively compared to the saw dust Spent grain had the highest value of okra pod yield followed by cocoa husk and wood ash while both saw dust and rice bran had the least values. The spent grain increased pod yield by 50; 49, 65 and 66 % more compared to wood ash, cocoa husk, rice bran and saw dust treatments respectively. NPK fertilizer increased the pod yield by 25, 24, 48 and 48.2 % more compared to wood ash; cocoa husk, rice bran and saw dust respectively. Spent grain also increased the pod yield by 33% compared to NPK fertilizer. The correlation coefficients (r) between pod yield and pod N, pod yield and pod ash, pod yield and crude protein were 0.81, 0.73 and 0.64 respectively at 1% level (P=0.01) while the regression coefficient (R2) for the relationship between okra pod yield, chemical composition and biochemical quality was 0.83. The implication is that pod N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Na, crude protein and ash accounted for 83 % of yield variation in okra.

ISSN 1511-3701

e-ISSN 2231-8542

Article ID

JTAS-0312-2006

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