Cauliflower Cultivation on Rooftop Garden Using Various Composts: Morphological and Economic Analysis

Abstract

Cauliflower is one of the most important and commercial cole crop in Bangladesh. Cauliflower is a very tasty and much popular vegetable in Bangladesh as well as all over the world. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to investigate the impacts of vermicompost, sawdust, and cowdung on the growth and yield of cauliflower on rooftops, as well as to evaluate the economic performance of various organic manures on cauliflower yield. The experiment was carried out on the sixth floor of housing no. 64, road no. 6/A, Dhanmondi 13 during the period from November 2019 to July 2020. The experiment was designed in CRD having single factor with three replications. The treatments of this experiment were T0= Control (recommended dose of chemical fertilizers), T1= Vermicompost (10 t ha-1) + recommended dose of chemical fertilizers, T2= Sawdust (15 t ha-1) + recommended dose of chemical fertilizers and T3= Cowdung (20 t ha-1) + recommended dose of chemical fertilizers. The seedlings of the cole crop (BARI Fulkopi-2) were collected from Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Joydebpur, Gazipur. Results revealed that the maximum pure curd weight per plant (551.60 g), yield per plot (3.95 kg) and yield per hectare (19.75 t) were obtained from T1 (vermicompost @ 10 t ha-1 + recommended dose of chemical fertilizers) treatment. The benefit cost ratio (BCR) was found to be the highest (3.33) in the treatment of T1 (vermicompost @ 10 t ha-1 + recommended dose of chemical fertilizers). Thus, it was apparent that the vermicompost treatment gave the highest yield per hectare (19.75 t) than the other treatments (sawdust and cowdung) and the highest gross return (Tk. 395000.00). The results clearly showed that rooftops are suitable for cauliflower vegetable production using vermicompost manure to maintain yield as well.