Effect of Nitrogen and Spacing on Vegetative Growth and Pod Characters of Okra Abelmoschus esculantus (L.) Moench Cv Al Hindi

Abstract

Nitrogen is the most important nutrient to the plant, and its dose depends on the amount, availability to the plant and the plant density. This study was conducted in 20 September 2021 to the end of the year, to investigate the effect of nitrogen fertilizer and plant spacing on Okra Abelmoschus esculanntus (L.) Moennch vegetative growth and pod characters. The treatments were laid out as factorial arrangement in a Split Randomized Blocked Design, and replicated four times. Four nitrogen doses: N₀; 0, N₁; 119, N₂; 238 and N₃; 357 Kg ha^-1 and three plant spacing: S₁; 30, S₂; 40 and S₃; 50 cm plant apart, were examined. The analyses of variance reflected that the growth parameters significantly increased with increased plant spacing, while pod attributes were not affected except pod dry weight, which is weighty in middle plant spacing. Increasing nitrogen fertilizer increased plant fresh and dry weight, while decreasing nitrogen increased plant and pod dry weight and pod dry matter, moreover the middle dose of nitrogen gave the heavies pod fresh weight, while pod length and girth were not affected. The combination between higher dose of nitrogen and plant spacing donates the heaviest plant fresh and dry weight, while the higher plant dry matter is presented by the lower dose of nitrogen with higher plant spacing, which also increased plant dry weight. Overall plant spacing, the minimum fertilizer dose maximized plant dry matter, while this dose with both narrowest plant spacing gave the heaviest pod dry weight and widest pod girth, pod girth is also the biggest with the narrowest plant spacing having no fertilizer. Lowering plant spacing received nitrogen in a middle amount increased pod length. It could be concluded that optimum green pod quality of pod fresh weight may be considered with interaction effects of higher density with middle dose of nitrogen. The lower and middle densities with minimum dose of nitrogen may be considered optimal for the heaviest pod dry weight and widest pod girth. Regardless of plant density, the lower dose of nitrogen is optimal for the pod dry matter.