Growth and yield performance of different vegetables applied with organic fertilizers

The study was conducted to determine the effects of organic fertilizers on the growth of different vegetables and to find out which among the different vegetables will give the best yield when applied with organic fertilizers. The study was conducted from October 2009 to February 2010 at ASIST [Abra State Inst. of Sciences and Technology] Main Campus, Lagangilang, Abra [Philippines]. The experiment was laid out following a Randomized Complete Block Design. The five different vegetables were tomato, mungbean, cowpea, pepper and eggplant set in each treatment with three blocks. The different treatments are as follows: T1- Farmers Practice, T2- Organic Fertilizer, T3- Fermented Plant Juice (spiny amaranthus). Based on the result obtained in the study, no significant result was observed among the different fertilizers in terms of initial height, plant height at flowering and number of days to harvest on tomato, mungbean, cowpea, pepper and eggplant. However, statistical analysis showed highly significant result on the number of days to fruit setting of pepper applied with fermented plant juice compared to the other treatments. There was no significant effect of the different fertilizers on the number of marketable fruits and weight of marketable fruits on tomato, mungbean, cowpea and pepper except on eggplant which showed that those plants applied with fermented plant juice produced the greatest number and heaviest weight of marketable fruits. In terms of the computed yield per hectare, statistical analysis showed insignificant result on the yield obtained per hectare on tomato, mungbean and pepper, however, highly significant result was noted on the yield per hectare of cowpea and eggplant applied with fermented plant juice. The result of the study is supported with the findings of other researchers that fermented plant juice contains rich nutrients which can be easily absorbed by plants and bioactive substances that stimulate plant growth. Thus, cowpea and eggplant applied with fermented plant juice of spiny amaranthus produced the greatest number of fruits and heaviest weight of marketable fruits that resulted in higher yield obtained per hectare.