Effect of water regimes, nitrogen and phosphorus on crop growth, yield and economics of aloe (Aloe barbadensis)

Abstract

The experiment was conducted during 2006–08 to study the effect of water regimes, nitrogen and phosphorus on crop growth, yield and economics of aloe (Aloe barbadensis Mill.). The results revealed that the crop growth parameters (plant height and plant spread), yield attributes (number of harvested leaf, weight of leaf, leaf length, width and thickness of leaf), number of suckers, chlorophyll content of leaf, nitrogen and phosphorus content in soil, net returns and benefit: cost ratio were significantly affected with individual treatment. There was statistically significant increase in yield of leaves/ha (155.53 and 140.10%) and number of suckers arises (164.88 and 42.41%) due to irrigation scheduled at IW: CPE ratio of 0.3 over IW: CPE ratio 0.1 in both the years (2006–07 and 2007–08), respectively. The maximum net returns, (`1 52 429/ha. and ` 2 05 445/ha) and highest benefit : cost ratio (3.99 and 5.32) was also recorded in same treatment.