Abstract:
An experiment was conducted at Agricultural Engineering field, faculty of agriculture,
Eastern University, Sri Lanka to assess the effect of mulching and irrigation interval
on vegetative growth and yield of okra (Haritha). The experiment evolved into a
factorial complete randomized design. There were 06 treatments comprising T1- black
polythene mulch with daily irrigation, T2- black polythene mulch with once in a two
days irrigation, T3- paddy straw mulch with daily irrigation, T4- without mulch with
daily irrigation (control), T5- paddy straw mulch with once in a two days irrigation
and T6- without mulch with once in two days irrigation which was replicated three
times. Mulching and irrigation interval showed significant effect on all growth and
yield parameters. The study revealed that plant height, number of leaves, number of
flowers per plant, number of pods per plant, pods length, total yield, plant biomass and
water use efficiency (WUE) among the different treatments were statistically
significant at 0.05 probability level. Among the treatments, the black polythene mulch
with daily irrigation treatment produced the maximum fruit yield (12060 t/ha), and had
better plant height (25.11cm), number of leaves per plant (9), number of fruits per plant
(11), average fruit length (16.082cm), root fresh and dry mean weight (6.733g and
3.733g), shoot fresh and dry mean weight (45.500g and 36.17g) and water use
efficiency (WUE) (1.9879 kg/ha-mm). Thus, black polythene mulch with daily
irrigation is better for okra production at palacholai area of Batticaloa district, Sri
Lanka.
