Fertilizer Field Trial

Introduction:

The purpose of this study was to determine the soil nutrients available at SAKA

(experimental site) for the growth of pechay vegetable. Soil fertility has a dramatic

impact on the profit equation because the lack of fertility limits production. Pechay

requires at least some major nutrients for growth and reproduction. A deficiency in any

one of those nutrients will reduce yield. Most of those nutrients are obtained from the

soil. According to Duke (1978), only light applications of fertilizer are justified, as 450–

675 kg/ha of 4–12–4.

The primary plant nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) are the most

important in Pechay production in terms of amounts required and frequency and

magnitude of plant response.

Objective of the study

To determine the soil nutrients available at SAKA (experimental site) for the

growth of pechay vegetable.

Materials and Methods

Materials:

240 seedlings of pechay vegetable; hoe for tillage and soil manipulation

operation; transplanting trays; recording book; urea fertilizer, phosphate fertilizer and

complete fertilizer.

Methods:

The trial was designed to take advantage of the highly uniform growing

conditions during transplanting, the seedlings planted has relatively uniform height and

leaf width. The treatments were randomly assigned to the each experimental unit.

The experiment was replicated three times.

Experimental unit

REPLICATE 1

R1T3 R1T0 R1T1 R1T2

REPLICATE 2

R2T1 R2T2 R2T3 R2T0

REPLICATE 3

R3T2 R3T3 R3T0 R3T1

Treatments

T0 – Control

T1 – Urea (46-0-0)

T2 – diammonium phosphate (16- 45 – 0)

T3 – Complete (14-14-14)

Replicates

R1 – Replicate 1

R2 – Replicate 2

R3 – Replicate 3

COMPOSITION OF FERTILIZER USED

PICTURES

Phosphate fertilizer16- 45 - 0

COMPLETE FERTILIZER14-14-14

UREA46-0-0

Potassium fertilizers was not available, very scarce so I made do with (16-46-0)

Results

REPLICATE 1

RIT3 R1T0

R1T1 R1T2

REPLICATE 2

R2T1 R2T2

R2T3 R2T0

REPLICATE 3

R3T2 R3T3

R3T0 R3T1

Experimental plot

DISCUSSION

COMPARING VERTICALLY THE EFFECTS OF THE TREATMENTS ON THE VEGETABLE ON THE THREE REPLICATION

Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4R1TI R1T2 R1T3 R1T0

R2T1 R2T2 R2T3 R2T0

R3T1 R3T2 R3T3 R3T0

The high yield response of pechay to phosphate and the comparatively lower

yield response to Nitrogen were mainly caused by the fertility status of the soil.

Considering column 1 with the addition of Urea as treatment, the deficiency of

Phosphorus and potassium can be observed, from the picture at column one, the pechay

response has dark green color, Stalks short and thin, new growth is weak and stunted.

Phosphorus is important for structure and function of nucleic acids and energy molecules,

so the plant will show poor flowering and fruiting. Leaf tips and edges looked burned and

this shows the deficiency of potassium

Considering column 2 where the treatment used was diammonium phosphate (16-

45 – 0), yellowing at the tip and the edge of the leaves shows the potassium deficiency.

Column 3 shows good response and highly good yield. The treatment applied was

complete fertilizer (14-14-14). Column 4 is control, no treatment applied. The yield is

relatively low, stunted and the plant heights were short compared to others.

The result shows that the soil at SAKA has lower amount of required nutrients

(NPK) which is required for the growth of pechay vegetable. Higher response and yield

were observed using complete fertilizer that supplied all the nutrients (NPK).The yield

using phosphate fertilizer (16- 45 – 0) was also high since relatively amount of Nitrogen

and higher percentage of Phosphorus were supplied.

For grower who wishes to plant pechay or other vegetable at SAKA, it is

recommended that complete fertilizer should be used to obtain optimum high yield.

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