Abstract:
The research study was aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of liquid fertilizer prepared using
Mexican sunflower plant. It is a weed plant. The experiment was carried out during January 2023
to March 2023 at the Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Eastern University Sri Lanka.
The experiment was arranged in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with five treatments
and five replicates. Treatments are T1 - recommended amount of inorganic fertilizers by the
Department of Agriculture (DOA), T2 - Half amount of recommended inorganic fertilizers and 3
times application of compost extract, T3 - Half amount of recommended inorganic fertilizers and
3 times application of cow dung extract, T4 - Half amount of recommended inorganic fertilizers
and 3 times application of Mexican sunflower - guinea pig manure liquid fertilizer and T5 - 3
times application of Mexican sunflower - guinea pig manure liquid fertilizer. Liquid fertilizer
application was done 3 times (2 WAP, 3 WAP and 4 WAP) until the harvesting. All other
agronomic practices were followed based on DOA recommendation. Plant height, number of
leaves per plant, leaf area, and stem length were measured in weekly interval. Yield was measured
r
at the time of harvesting. Analysis of Variance was performed to determine significant difference
among treatments (p< 0.05). The statistical results show that the highest mean plant height was
observed in control treatment (T1) while the yield was high in the treatments T4 and T5 compared
to other treatments. It could be concluded that application of Mexican sunflower plant- guinea pig
manure liquid fertilizer combined with inorganic fertilizer or alone would enhance yield of leafy
vegetable.
