Abstract |
The experiments were conducted at the Kalirchar which is situated at the side of Brahmaputra River adjacent to the Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh; to study the growth and yield of Sweet gourd in association with Eucalyptus and Lemon tree saplings. The experiments were conducted during October 2011 to March 2012 in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. In case of Eucalyptus, the different treatments were vis. T1 -2 feet distance from the tree, T2 - 4 feet distance from the tree, T3 - 6 feet distance from the tree from tree bases. On the other hand, In case of Lemon the treatments were 10ft away from each sides of the tree base, designated as T1 10 away feet from North, T210ft away from South side, T310ft away from East side, and T4 10ft away from West side. The treatment T0 referred as control as control in the both cases. From the results, it was observed that the growth and yield of Sweet gourd increased rapidly as distance increased from the tree base. All the parameters i.e. plant height, diameter, leaf length, leaf breadth, number of fruits plant-1, weight of fruits plant-1, yield etc. increased gradually with increasing distance from tree bases. The treatment control with tree gave the highest results in all the studied parameters of Sweetgourd for both Lemon and Eucalyptus association. Among the distance treatments, the highest (6.5kg/plant) yield of Sweetgourd was obtained in T3 treatment and lowest (5.0 kg/plant) in T1 treatment in Eucalyptus association. On the other hand, In case of Lemon sapling association with Sweetgourd, the highest (8.4 kg/plant) was recorded in T3 treatment and the treatment T4 gave the lowest (6.6 kg/plant) yield of Sweetgourd. It was observed that sweet gourd compete highly with Eucalyptus tree sapling than Lemon sapling. Because Eucalyptus has highest growth, stem vigorous root with lateral root system; shading and lighting effect and found that more distance and no competition were visible for the better result showing control plot and the short distance showed less production for more competition among nutrient and other growth factors in this agroforestry practices. |