INFLUENCE OF MINERAL AND ORGANIC FERTILIZATION ON GROWTH AND QUALITY OF SPINACH (Spinacia oleracea L.)

The present investigation was carried out during the two successive years of 2019 and 2020. Using one of the commercial spinach hybrid (SCO-017) with high market quality. The aim of this study was to determine the vermicompost impact on yield and some growth properties as well as estimation of nutrient element contents in the spinach leaves. Also compare between vermicompost effect along with and without other Fertilizers. The experiment was carried out in a randomized complete block design (R.C.B.D) including 7 treatments with 3 replications. Fertilizer treatments were as follows. T1- NPK (Control), T2- Chicken manure1.5 kg/m2, T3- Vermicompost 1.5kg/m2, T4- NPK + chicken manure, T5- NPK + vermicompost, T6- chicken manure + Vermicompost and T7- NPK + chicken manure + vermicompost. Results revealed that organic fertilizers such as vermicompost and chicken manure were better when compared with chemical fertilizer, and during the study, it was found that, all treatments in 2019 had a positive effect on the yield, except for the T2 (chicken manure), where the yield/plot increased 171.02%, 130.09%, 91.69%, 44.73% and 35.18 respectively for T5, T7, T4, T6 and T3 compared to T1. In 2020 five treatments gave positive response to total yield/plot T5, T7, T4, T6 and T3 which was increased by 50.13%, 47.37%, 4.77%, 3.86% and 3.78%.