Impact of Organic Foliar Formulations on Growth and Yield of Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus)

Aims: To evaluate the effect of foliar application of different organic formulations on growth and yield of okra.

Study Design: Completely Randomized Block Design

Place and Duration of Study: Agronomy organic farm, College of Agriculture, Pune, during summer season of 2019-20.

Methodology: The experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Block Design with eight treatments and three replications. The gross and net plot sizes were 3.30 m x 3.00 m and 2.70 m x 2.40 m, respectively. The treatments consisted seven organic formulations with one control i.e. no foliar spray viz. control (no foliar spray), T1: control (no foliar spray), T2: foliar application of cow urine at 5%, T3: foliar application of jeevamrut at 5%, T4: foliar application of EM solution at 1%, T5: foliar application of humic acid at 2%, T6: foliar application of fulvic acid at 2%, T7: foliar application of vermiwash at 5% and T8: foliar application of seaweed extract at 0.25%.

Results: The results revealed that all the growth contributing characters viz., plant height, number of branches plant-1, plant spread, number of nodes plant-1, internodal length and leaf area plant-1 were found significantly higher with the foliar application of seaweed extract at 0.25%. This was followed by foliar application of vermiwash at 5%. However, substantial reduction in growth characters was observed with control (no foliar spray).

Conclusion: The expression of growth characters in okra like Plant height, number of branches per plant, Plant spread, Number of nodes, internodal length and Leaf area were recorded higher with the foliar application of sea weed extract at 0.25% and were found statistically difference among all growth characters except the Internodal length which was found to be non-significant.