Abstract
An experiment was conducted at the Agronomy Field Laboratory, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh from December 2009 to March 2011 to determine the effect of date of planting on growth and leaf yield of Stevia. The experiment comprised 24 dates of planting in the year of 2010 viz. 1 January (T1), 15 January (T2), 1 February (T3), 15 February (T4), 1 March (T5), 15 March (T6), 1 April (T7), 15 April (T8), 1 May (T9), 15 May (T10), 1 June (T11), 15 June (T12), 1 July (T13), 15 July (T14), 1 August (T15), 15 August (T16), 1 September (T17), 15 September (T18), 1 October (T19), 15 October (T20), 1 November (T21), 15 November (T22), 1 December (T23) and 15 December (T24). The experiment was laid out in a Complete Randomized Design with three replications. Twenty four dates of planting were included in the experiment in 72 earthen pots (24 X 3) of 30 cm diameter X 30 cm height. Stem cuttings were placed in shaded seed bed for root initiation. Twenty one - day old stem cuttings were used as planting material. Stem cuttings were transplanted in the pots on the specific dates. Different dates of planting had significant effect on the growth and yield parameters. 1 April 2010 (T7) planting proved to be the superior to the other treatments i.e. plant height (68.50cm), number of leaves plant-1 (142.33), number of primary branches plant-1 (37.33), fresh weight of leaves plant-1 (14.11g), fresh weight of primary and secondary branches plant-1 (11.06g and 20.91g), dry weight of leaves plant-1 (3.38g) which might be due to warm environmental conditions like clear sunshine and high temperature. The overall results suggested that stevia seedlings may be planted from 15 February to 30 April for better yield of leaves. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbau.v10i2.14684 J. Bangladesh Agril. Univ. 10(2): 205-210, 2012
Highlights
Stevia is a sweet herb commonly known as “honey leaf” in Indian market (Rayaguru and Khan, 2008)
1 April 2010 (T7) planting proved to be the superior to the other treatments i.e. plant height (68.50cm), number of leaves plant-1 (142.33), number of primary branches plant-1 (37.33), fresh weight of leaves plant-1 (14.11g), fresh weight of primary and secondary branches plant-1 (11.06g and 20.91g), dry weight of leaves plant-1 (3.38g) which might be due to warm environmental conditions like clear sunshine and high temperature
The overall results suggested that stevia seedlings may be planted from 15 February to 30 April for better yield of leaves
Summary
Stevia is a sweet herb commonly known as “honey leaf” in Indian market (Rayaguru and Khan, 2008). The natives of Paraguay used the leaves of this herb to sweeten their bitter drinks It is one of 154 members of the genus Stevia, which produces sweet stevioside, diterpenoid glycoside in the leaves of this plant (Soejarto et al, 1982). Due to illiteracy and socioeconomic condition of farmers in Bangladesh is not possible for tissue culture but stem cutting technique will be an appropriate method for propagation in Stevia. In the recent years BSRI and Bangladesh Rural Advanced Committee (BRAC), Gazipur, have performed various laboratory experiments especially on tissue culture technique and have developed a method of In vitro production of stevia seedling. The present study was, undertaken to the effect of planting date on the growth and leaf yield of Stevia
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