MAGNESITE AS SOURCE OF MAGNESIUM NUTRITION FOR FENUGREEK (original) (raw)

This experiment was conducted at Agricultural Research Station, OFRD, BARI, Rangpur and MLT site, Domar, Nilphamary during Rabi 2011-12 to evaluate the performance of Magnesium on yield and yield components of Potato. There were seven treatments in the experiment, viz T 1 = Recommended dose (N 120 P 30 K 120 S 15 Zn 3 B 1) without Magnesium, T2 = T1 + 20 kg Kieserite/ha, T3 = T1 + 20 Kg MgSo4/ha, T4 = T1 + 40 Kg Kieserite/ha, T 5 = T1 + 40 Kg MgSo4/ha, T6 = T1 +60 Kg Kieserite/ha, T7 = T1 + 60 Kg MgSo4/ha. Kieserite and magnesium sulphate were the sources of Magnesium. Both on-station (ARS, Rangpur) and on-farm (MLT site Domar) experiment, the treatment T 6 showed the highest yield (29.71 and 35.33 tha-1 respectively) compared to other treatments. The results also revealed that between two studied sources of Mg, kaserite is better than magnesium sulphate. Introduction Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is one of the major vegetables grown during winter season in Bangladesh. It is now one of the leading staple food crops of the world and it ranks next to rice and wheat. Now-a-days potato is commercially grown in almost all countries of the world and even in Bangladesh it is also commercially cultivated. The lack of adequate balanced fertilizer application is one of the most important constrains of higher tuber yield of potato. Since 1980, farmers were using only NPK-fertilizers, but now they are applying S and Zn along with NPK. But, deficiencies of Mg in some soils and crops (potato, maize and tomato) were found in the northern part of Bangladesh, especially in Greater Rangpur and Dinajpur districts (Jahiruddin et al., 1992 and Islam et al, 1992). Plants are deficit to Mg in the soil having low pH, sandy in nature and highly leached soil with low cation exchange capacity (Tisdale et al., 1990). Magnesium deficiencies are most frequently found in the region of heavy rainfall and light texture soils of northern districts (Anonymous 1988). The most common symptom of Mg deficiency was observed in the potato field as interveinal chlorosis on the older leaves. However, magnesium is an important constituent of chlorophyll molecule, therefore, essential for photosynthesis. Magnesium increase NPK uptake and there by increase yield (Kene et al., 1990) and promotes uptake and translocation of phosphors (Russell, 1975). Changes in plant nutrient management programs over the years have placed more emphasis on the secondary nutrients S, Mg, and calcium (Ca) as high-yielding crop needs for N, P, and K have been met by better fertility management. Hence, here an experiment was conducted to observe the performance of two sources of magnesium on yield and yield attributes of potato and to find out the optimum dose of magnesium on the yield of potato.