Author(s)

Rafiq Ahmad¹, Dost Muhammad¹, Maria Mussarat¹, Shah Fahad², Shahid Ullah³, Taimur Ahmad⁴, Sara Wahab⁵

¹Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences, The University of Agriculture, Peshawar, Pakistan.
²University of Swabi, Swabi, Pakistan.
³Department of Agronomy, The University of Agriculture, Peshawar, Pakistan.
⁴Department of Horticulture, AMK Campus Mardan, The University of Agriculture Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan.
⁵Department of Zoology, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Mardan, Pakistan.

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the response of colocasia (Colocasia esculenta) to different levels of 0, 60, 90, 120 and 150 kg N ha^-1 under farmer’s field condition at Garhi Usmani Khel, District Malakand Dargai during 2013. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block design with three replications and treatment plot size of 2.74 × 2.43 m². All levels of N in the form of urea along with uniform basal doze of 90 kg P₂O₅ ha^-1 as Triple Super Phosphate (TSPPP) were applied to soil at time of seed bed followed by thorough mixing. Seeds of colocasia c.v. local variety were sown in these plots with row spacing of 30 cm and plant to plant distance of 12 cm in February, 2013. The results showed that application of N produced significantly higher colocasia tuber yield, number of tubers plant^-1, 1000-tubers weight and size of tubers (mean length and diameter) over control but the differences among levels of N were nonsignificant. However, some parameters like tuber yield was maximum at 60 kg N ha^-1 and tuber size especially the length of colocasia tuber was maximum at 150 kg N ha^-1 suggesting that the response of each parameter was different to N levels. Based on maximum relative yield (100%) and increase over control (46.1%) still at lower N levels of 60 kg N ha^-1, this level seems to be appropriate level for colocasia under the prevailing soil and climatic conditions.

Colocasia esculenta, Nitrogen, Tuber Yield, Agronomic Character, Pakistan

Ahmad, R. , Muhammad, D. , Mussarat, M. , Fahad, S. , Ullah, S. , Ahmad, T. and Wahab, S. (2018) Effect of Different Levels of Nitrogen on Yield of Colocasia (Colocasia esculenta) at District Malakand Dargai. Open Journal of Soil Science, 8, 87-98. doi: 10.4236/ojss.2018.82007.