FIELD EVALUATION OF CATTLE MANNURE ALONG WITHEFFECTIVE MICROORGANISMS ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF CAPSICUM (CAPSICUM ANNUM L.)

Abstract

The experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of effective microorganisms (EM) along
with cattle manure on growth and yield of capsicum (Capsicum annum L.) in field conditions at
the Crop farm, Eastern University, Sri Lanka. This study had six treatments with three replicates
and it was arranged in a Randomized Complete Block Design. The treatments were inorganic
fertilizer application (T1), no fertilizer application (T2) and different rates of cattle manure (5-20
ton/ha) with EM (from T3 to T6). The results shows that there was no significant difference
(P>0.05) in canopy height among the treatments upto 20 DAT. However, remarkable variation
(P<0.05) was observed at 30 DAT and T4 had highest canopy height. Among the tested
treatments, there was no significant difference (P>0.05) in number of leaves per plant at 10,
20 and 30 DAT which was confirmed with P values of 0.197, 0.700 and 0.075 and chi-square
of 7.33, 3.00 and 10.00 respectively. The diameter of pod was increased upto 3rd picking
thereafter it was decreased in most of the treatments. Increasing cattle manure from 5 tons/ha to
10 tons/ha, increased number of pods per plant. The fresh weight of pods, number of seeds per
pod as well as dry weights of pods and seeds were high in cattle manure (10 tons/ha) with EM.
The present study suggests that cattle manure at the rate of 10 tons/ha along with EM would be
the most suitable treatment to obtain high vegetative and reproductive growth of capsicum in
sandy regosol.