Peat soil based organo-mineral nitrogen fertilizer performed better than urea in improving nutritional quality of baby corn

Abstract

Organo-mineral fertilizers (OMF) are becoming popular because of their potential to increase crop quality and yield. A pot experiment was carried out in the net house of the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Mymensingh to observe the effect of newly formulated peat soil urea (PSU) on the nutritional quality of baby corn in comparison to commercial urea. The experiment was laid out following a completely randomized design (CRD) with 4 replicates. In this trial, three sources of nitrogen (N) (urea, PSU-L, and PSU-H) were used to apply N at rates of 50, 75, and 100% of the suggested N application dose. Soil application of PSU fertilizer showed a significant influence on the nutritional parameters of baby corn. A slightly higher chlorophyll a and b were found in PSU treated plants than in commercial urea. The highest cob and fodder N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Fe, and Zn content were found in baby corn that received PSU treatment than commercial urea treatment. The application of PSU in soil showed about 23, 15 and 21% higher N, P, and Zn uptake by baby corn, respectively than commercial urea. Again, N uptake showed a strong correlation with the uptake of other nutrients. In light of the overall findings PSU could be used as N source for the production of high-quality baby corn.