Title : Study of spacing, correlation and path coefficient in Moringa (Moringa oleifera L) var. PKM1
Abstract:
The drumstick (Moringa oleifera L) is one of the important perennial vegetables grown in India. It is popular because of its unique flavor and attractive taste. Spacing is an important factor used to optimize tree growth, development and leaf yield per unit area of land, the trees should be established at the spacing that will produce maximum economic yields of crops. Planting at high density would increase the competition for nutrient space and light, which reduced the number of leaves per plant and the number of plants per unit area. Proper spacing is essential to get the maximum yield of Moringa leaves and better quality. The experiment on Moringa (var PKM-1) was conducted during Rabi, 2021-22 at the Instructional Farm, RABL College of Agriculture and Research Station Chhuikhadan, Dist- Khairagarh-Chhuikhadan-Gandai, Chhattisgarh, India.
The present investigation was conducted in Randomized Block Design with 03 replications (var PKM-1) in 09 treatments (2.5m x 1.0 m, 2.5 m x 2.5 m, 1.5 m x1.0 m, 1.0 m x 1.0 m , 2.5 m x 2.0 m, 1.3 m x 1.0 m, 3.0 m x 2.5 m, 3.0 m x 3.0 m, 1.2 m x 1.2 m) and result concluded that the growth and yield parameter was found significantly superior in treatment T6 (1.3 m x1.0 m) at 270 days after planting for most of the characters i.e. stem girth (5.70 cm), number of branches/plant (16.27), number of leaflets/rachis (62.32), length of rachilla/plant (16.57 cm), leaflet length (24.10 cm), petiole length (12.54 cm), leaflet-petiole ratio (2.03), canopy spread (171.00 cm), fresh leaf weight (327.80 gm), dry leaf weight (73.55 gm), fresh leaf yield (2521.54 Kg/ha), dry leaf yield (565.74 kg/ha), dry matter percentage (22.43) and B: C ratio fresh leaves (3.04) and dry leaves (7.29). The association studied revealed that the fresh leaf yield was a highly positive association with stem base diameter, stem girth, number of branches/plant, number of leaflets/rachis, length of rachilla/plant, canopy spread, fresh leaf weight, dry leaf weight, leaflet length, petiole length and dry matter percentage at genotypic and phenotypic levels. The path coefficient analysis revealed that the character’s plant height, stem base diameter, number of leaflet/rachis, length of rachilla/plant, fresh leaf weight, dry leaf yield, dry matter percentage showed a positive direct effect on fresh leaf yield understudied.
