Effects of graded nitrogen levels on the growth and quality of Cordyline fruticosa L. variety ‘Purple Compacta’ in Batticaloa district of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Cordyline is a popular foliage plant with high demand in the export markets as cut decorative foliage. Nitrogen has significant effects on vegetative growth and quality of foliage plants. A shade house (50%) experiment was conducted to determine the effects of graded nitrogen levels on vegetative growth and quality of cordyline (Cordyline fruticosa var. ‘purple compacta’) plants in the Crop Farm, Eastern University, Sri Lanka. The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design with twenty replications. Five treatments were defined viz. 0.5(T1), 1.0 (T2), 1.5 (T3), 2.0 (T4) and 2.5 (T5) g nitrogen/plant/month (g/p/m). Recommended agronomic practices were followed uniformly for all treatments. Parameters viz. plant height, leaf area and plant biomass were measured at monthly interval and quality of cuttings was assessed at 3 months after transplanting. Analysis of Variance was performed to determine significant difference among treatments (p < 0.05). Results revealed that plants belong to T1 (nitrogen level 0.5g/p/m) showed significantly (p < 0.05) better performance in the measured growth parameters viz. plant height, leaf area and plant biomass while the lowest performance was observed in T5 at 3 MAT. In quality assessment, plants grown at T1 received significantly highest scores. It could be concluded that, nitrogen level of 0.5g/p/m (T1) is the suitable amount of nitrogen as growth and quality of plants was higher.