Effects of Chitin Nanofiber on Growth and Yield of Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

An experiment was conducted at Professor Dr. Purnendu Gain Field Laboratory of Agrotechnology Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna, during the period from April 2024 to July 2024, in order to investigate the effect of urea and CNF (Chitin Nanofiber) on the growth and yield of Pritom F1 Hybrid brinjal. With five replications and five treatments, the experiment was set up using completely randomized design (CRD). Since the experiment was conducted in pots, each pot resembled a single replication. 25 pots were prepared for the five treatments with five replications. In this experiment the treatments were T₁ = Control (water), T₂= N (as urea), T₃=0.005% CNF, T₄= 0.01% CNF, T₅= 0.02% CNF. The main purpose of this experiment was to use CNF as a replacement of N to reduce the huge cost of fertilizers. The result showed that the highest leaf chlorophyll content index (93.93), secondary branch plant^-1 (14.80), fruit length (8.07 cm), fruit shape index (2.98) were obtained from 0.02% CNF. The highest plant height (69.00 cm) was observed from 0.01% CNF, the maximum leaf number plant^-1 (68.20) counted from 0.005% CNF. The maximum primary branch plant^-1 (9.20) was found from urea application. The highest stem diameter (13.77 mm), flower cluster per plant^-1 (11.80), fruit number plant^-1 (6.20), fruit weight  plant^-1 (151.89g), fruit diameter (31.87mm) were got from control. However, there was inconsistency regarding the effect of CNF on growth and yield of brinjal. More experiments need to be conducted to identify the possibility of using CNF as a source of nitrogen for brinjal cultivation.

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