Journal of Experimental Agriculture International

Aims: An experiment was conducted to study the influence of commercially available liquid fertilizers on local chilli germplasm.

Study Design: The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with four replications.

Place and Duration of Study: The experiment was conducted in the crop field of the Department of Agricultural Botany, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207, during the period from October 2015 to July 2016.

Methodology: The experiment consist of three levels of locally available common liquid fertilizers (F₀ = Control, F₁ = Calsol, F₂ = Wuxal) which is a blend of more than one macro and micronutrients. F₁ (Calsol) and F₂ (Wuxal) were applied @ 21 ml per 7 litre water for 168 m² of land at every 15 days interval. Foliar application was started from 30 days after setting up the experiment and continued up to 120 days.

Results: Maximum plant height (59.5 cm) and branches (33.0) plant^-1, leaf number (78.4) plant^-1 Chlorophyll content (57.1%), flowers plant^-1 (68.7), vitamin C content in green chilli fruits (75.28 mg/100 g fruit) and dry chilli (39.47 mg/100 g fruit), protein content (3.9%) were obtained from (Calsol) F₁ and minimum from (control) F₀ (57.0 cm), (23.8) and (67.2) plant^-1, (49.5%), (47.8), (58.80 mg/100 g), (29.77 mg/100 g) and (2.9%). Application of waxul gave the maximum leaf area plant^-1 (95.9 cm²) at 85 days after transplanting (DAT) which was identical with calsol (92.2 cm²) and the control gave the minimum (78.0 cm²). Liquid fertilizers application in leaves highest fresh weight of 50 fruit and dry weight of fruit (81.3 g and 15.7 g), single fruit weight (2.6 g), length (76.2 mm) and diameter (9.9 mm), fruit pant^-1 (214.8), 1000 seed weight (3.5 g), yield pant^-1 (466.7 g) and fresh yield (17.6 t ha^-1) were achieved from treatment F₁ (calsol) as minimum amount of 50 fresh fruit and dry fruit weight (64.9 g and 11.2 g), single fruit weight (1.9 g), length (60.8 mm), diameter (7.6 mm), number of fruit pant^-1 (139.1), 1000 seed weight (2.9 g), yield pant^-1 (229.4 g) and fresh yield (12.8 t ha^-1)  were found from F₀.

Conclusion: In view of overall performances, this study suggests that Calsol (F₁) as a potential source of plant liquid fertilizer for improving morphophysiology, yield and quality of local varietie of chilli.