EFFECT OF DIFFERENT SOIL MIXTURES ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF WATER SPINACH FOR ROOFTOP GARDENING

Abstract

Water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica) has been identified as a nutritious vegetable with high demand in all over the world. Besides, this plant also has been evidenced to play an important role in environmental cleaning as a phytoremediator. This experiment was conducted at HSTU, Dinajpur from September to November 2023, to study the different soil mixtures effect on the growth and yield of water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica L.cv.nice green) for rooftop gardening. The experiment was laid out in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with 7 treatments and 3 replications. The treatments were as follows; T1 = control (only soil); T2 = 50% Soil + 20% cowdung (CD) + 20% vermicompost (VM) + 5% sand + 5% cocodust + 2.0 g kg-1 bone meal powder; T3 = 45% soil + 20% CD + 25% VM + 5% sand + 5% cocodust + 1.5 g kg-1 bone meal powder; T4 = 45% soil + 25% CD + 20% VM + 5% sand + 5% cocodust + 1.5 g kg-1 bone meal powder; T5 = 40% soil + 20% CD + 20% VM + 15% sand + 5% cocodust + 2.0 g kg-1 bone meal powder; T6 = 35% soil + 25% CD + 25% VM + 10% sand + 5% cocodust + 1.0 g kg-1 bone meal powder; T7 = 35% soil + 25% CD + 25% VM + 5% sand + 10% cocodust + 1.0 g kg-1 bone meal powder. The soil was sandy loam, and the pH, organic carbon, total nitrogen, available phosphorus, exchangeable potassium, EC and available sulphur were 6.6, 0.56%, 0.08%, 4.90 ppm, 0.06 m.eq. 100g-1, 0.12 ms and 5.52, respectively. The results revealed that the highest growth and yield characteristics such as plant height, fresh weight after last harvest of water spinach of different soil mixtures. The highest plant height of water spinach was observed at T7 (57.66cm) and the lowest plant height was recorded at T1 (32.33 cm) treatment. The highest plant fresh weight of water spinach was observed at T5 (82.08 g). The lowest fresh weight was recorded at T1 (32.47 g) treatment. The results showed that T7 (35% soil + 25% CD + 25% VM + 5% sand + 10% cocodust + 1.0 g kg-1 bone meal powder) produced significantly better growth, yield and quality in water spinach in rooftop.