COMPARATIVE EFFECTIVENESS OF PARTHENIUM WEED COMPOST ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF CHILI CROP

Compost of parthenium weed (PWC) alone (10 t ha^-1) and in combination with NPK (½PWC + ½NPK recommended for chili crop) was compared with recommended NPK, FYM (10 t ha^-1), ½FYM + ½NPK and along with control for its effect on growth and yield attributes of chili on a farmer’s field in District Nowshera, Pakistan during 2014. The study was conducted in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) replicated 3 times. Results indicated significantly (p 0.05) higher growth and yield with ½PWC + ½NPK. Increase in plant height (13-48%), plant spread (10-48% at the 80th day after transplanting and 12-43% at maturity), number of leaves plant^-1 (7-36%), number of branches (18-86%), flower bearing plants at 50th (56% ) and 60th day (100%) , fresh biomass per chili plant (27% and 47% higher over the control and FYM, respectively), dry biomass (41, 55 and 11% higher over the control, FYM and ½FYM + ½NPK, respectively) were noted in ½PWC + ½NPK. Root depth was higher in PWC alone (upto 30%), whilst root volume was highest in ½PWC+ ½NPK ranging from 7-110% over the others. Increase in chilies yield plant^-1 in ½PWC + ½NPK ranged from 14-50% over the rest of the treatments. This study depicted that fresh FYM produced very poor results that were at par or inferior to the control in most of the growth parameters. It was concluded that parthenium weed composting, besides an environment friendly management of the parthenium, possesses as additional advantage of nutrient supplementation of soil that increased yield and yield attributes in chilli crop. Overall results showed that the application ½PWC + ½NPK should be encouraged for higher growth, yield and it biological control.