Genotype and spacing on growth, yield and profitability of yardlong bean

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at the Regional Agricultural Research Station, Jashore to investigate the effect of genotype and plant spacing on the growth, yield and profitability of dwarf yardlong bean over vine type during the period from 15 March 2019 to 14 August 2019. The experiment consisted of two yardlong bean genotypes, namely VU (p)-01 (BARI Borboti-01) (vine type) and VU (d) Jas-02 (dwarf type) and five levels of spacing viz., (i) 40 cm x 30 cm (ii) 40 cm x 40 cm, (iii) 50 cm x 40 cm (iv) 50 cm x 50 cm and (v) 60 cm x 60 cm. The factorial experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications. Complete harvesting of young pods took 152 days in vine type genotype, whereas, in dwarf genotype, that took 69 and 70 days from 1st and 2nd cultivation, respectively. In the case of dwarf type genotype, the data of plant height at different days after sowing (DAS), number of branches/plant at different DAS, canopy spread per plant at different DAS, days required to 1st flowering and 50% flowering, days required to 1st and last harvesting, pod length and diameter were averaged over two times cultivation, but individual pod weight, weight of pods per plant and pod yield per hectare were sum up of two growing cycles. The obtained results showed that all the characters were markedly influenced by two genotypes at different spacing. In genotype VU (d) Jas-02, among spacing treatments significantly higher number of primary branches plant-1 (4.40 at 60 DAS), canopy spread (54.86 cm at 60 DAS), pods plant-1 (39.61), pod length (34.90), pod diameter (9.27 mm), pod weight plant-1 (718.62 g) were recorded with wider spacing of 60 cm x 60 cm. In this genotype, maximum plant height (65.82 cm at 60 DAS) and yield (31.50 t ha-1) were recorded with the closer spacing of 40 cm x 30 cm. In the genotype VU (p)-01, maximum number of canopy spread (81.63 cm at 140 DAS), pods plant-1 (23.30), pod length (54.36 cm), pod diameter (8.13 mm), pod weight plant-1 (365.23 g) were recorded with wider spacing of 60 cm x 60 cm. Maximum plant height (415.92 cm at 140 DAS) and yield (15.69 t ha-1) were recorded with the closer spacing of 40 cm x 30 cm. The economic analysis revealed that, in the case of the VU (p)-01 genotype, the 40 cm x 40 cm spacing gave the highest BCR of 1.42, whereas, in VU (d) Jas-02 genotype, that narrower spacing accrued maximum BCR of 3.96. Considering the above findings the dwarf genotype [VU (d) Jas-02] with 40 cm x 30 cm plant spacing may be recommended for yardlong bean cultivation in Bangladesh.