Growth and yield responses of broccoli cultivars to different rates of nitrogen in western Chitwan, Nepal

A field experiment was conducted with the objective to determine the optimum rate of nitrogen (N) fertilizer for effective growth and yield of two varieties of broccoli in southern plain of Nepal. The experiment was laid out with two-factorial completely random block design (RCBD) comprising two varieties of broccoli (Calabrese and Green Sprouting) and five N rates (0, 50, 100, 150 and 200 kg ha-1) with three replication in each treatment combinations. The effects of variety and N rate on total curd yield were significant but the interaction effect was non-significant. Green Sprouting produced 11% higher total curd than Calabrese. Similarly, curd production increased N rate up to 200 kg ha-1 reaching a maximum of 14.47 t ha-1. This indicated that optimum level of N could be beyond the rates tested in this study, which needs further experimentation.