Efficacy of mulching, irrigation and nitrogen applications on bottle gourd and okra for yield improvement and crop diversification

Abstract

An on-farm irrigation trial conducted on the upland of Chitwan valley of Nepal evaluated the amount and frequency of irrigation as well as the effect of nitrogen fertilizer and straw mulch applications on the performance of bottle gourd and okra vegetables. The experiment was laid out on split-split-plot design with fertilizer as main-plot factor, frequencies of irrigation as sub-plot factor, and amount of irrigation as sub-sub-plot factor. Data analysis revealed that frequency and amount of irrigation had a significant interaction effect on the number of nodes that emerge before the opening of the first flower in bottle gourd. Likewise, a significant effect of mulching was observed on the number of primary branches (P = 0.05). Number of nodes and primary branches both contributed to higher production of bottle gourd. Results also indicated that frequent application of higher amount of irrigation to bottle gourd could lead to reduced water productivity and suffer from yield losses. In the case of okra, low level of nitrogen application (30 kg N ha−1) with low but daily watering had significantly higher yield (1,365 g plot−1) than from higher level of nitrogen application (90 kg ha−1) (P = 0.01). Interaction effect of all factors was also significant (P = 0.05) on the fruit yield of okra which implied greater value of smaller irrigation to contribute to increased returns to farmers by improving production level of okra in this area of Nepal