| dc.description.abstract | Lettuce is one of the high nutrients demanding common vegetables which farmers grow with application of fertilizers. However, this is expensive, unsafe, has a toll on soil and affects biodiversity. So, the recent trend of agriculture is mainstreaming organic farming, which
involves use of locally available and environmentally friendly sources of nutrients such as black soldier fly frass. Black soldier fly frass is used as organic manure thus as a management option although its effect on plant growth as well as on soil is not known. Therefore, the major objective of this study was to contribute towards improvement in the production of crisphead lettuce through assessment of the effectiveness of black soldier fly frass and organic fertilizers on growth rate of crisphead lettuce. Two organic fertilizers; Black soldier fly manure and cattle manure each at four levels were laid out in a randomized complete block design on 18th of
September, 2022 in three replicates. Organic fertilizers significantly increased plant height, leaf size, plant fresh weight, number of sellable heads and total marketable yield of crisphead lettuce. BSF-2 produced the highest plant height, CD-2 produced the highest leaf size, BSF-4
produced the highest plant fresh weight, highest number of sellable heads and total marketable yield. However, organic fertilizers had no significant effect on plant dry weight. Also plant height and leaf size significantly varied increase in time. Plant height and leaf size significantly
increased from week 1 up to week 4, beyond which it became insignificant. Based on the above conclusions, it was recommended that farmers apply BSF-4 as the best amount for optimum yield of crisphead lettuce. | en_US |
