Effect of foliar application of chitosan and urea on growth, yield and quality of palak (Beta vulgaris var. bengalensis L.) cv. All Green

Utilization of organic substances as fertilizer nutrient sources is now popularising due to over increasing risk of chemical fertilizers used in agriculture. The present field experiment was conducted at Department of Horticulture, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow, U.P. (India) to assess the effect of chitosan, an alternative biological origin nutrient source and commercial urea on production of palak. The experiment was comprised of eight treatments namely Control- No fertilizer applied (T0), Recommended Dose of Fertilizer (RDF) @ 90:30:30 N P K kg/ha (T1), Chitosan @ 50 ppm (T2), @ 75 ppm (T3), @ 100 ppm (T4), @ 125 ppm (T5), @ 150 ppm (T6) and Urea @ 1% (T7) and was laid out in Randomized Block Design with three replications. The results showed that foliar application of chitosan and urea significantly influenced the growth, yield and quality of palak. The foliar application of chitosan @ 100 ppm (T4) showed significantly maximum vegetative growth, leaf yield along with better quality of leaves in terms of dry matter content, TSS and Vitamin C content. Urea @ 1% (T7) also showed close result compared to chitosan application. Hence, it will be beneficial to apply chitosan as liquid form @ 100 ppm for spinach beet under subtropical agro-climate condition of Lucknow for better growth, leaf yield and leaf quality.