Effects of mulching and micronutrients on growth, yield and quality of carrot (Daucus carota L.)

Carrot (Daucus carota L.) is one of the most important root vegetables of Bangladesh. Mulching and micronutrients have strong effect on growth, yield and quality of carrot. An experiment was conducted at the Horticulture Farm of the Department of Horticulture, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh during the period from November 2021 to February 2022 to examine the effect of mulching and micronutrients on growth, yield and quality of carrot. The two-factor experiment consisted of four mulching treatments viz. control (no mulch), water hyacinth, rice straw and black polythene, and four types of micronutrients viz. control (no micronutrient), boron (3 kg/ha), zinc (2 kg/ha), boron+ zinc (3+2 kg/ha). The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications. Result of the experiment revealed that application of mulching materials and different levels of micronutrients alone or in combination significantly influenced all the parameters studied. The highest gross yield of root (29.4 t/ha) was obtained from black polythene mulch. The lowest gross yield of root (14.9 t/ha) was obtained from control (no mulch) treatment. The highest gross yield of root (31.7 t/ha) was obtained from (boron+ zinc) micronutrient treatment. On the contrary, the lowest gross yield of root (13.3 t/ha) was obtained from control treatment. Among the treatment combinations, the highest gross yield of root (39.8 t/ha) was obtained from Black polythene with (boron+ zinc) micronutrient treatment. On the contrary, the lowest gross yield of root (10.6 t/ha) was obtained from control treatment. The highest gross was obtained from black polythene mulch with (boron+ zinc) micronutrient treatment. Therefore, application of black polythene mulch along with combined treatment (boron+ zinc) was found to be better in respect of growth, yield and quality of carrot.