Comparison of Garden Soil with Nitrogen and Potassium for Growing Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) in Glass House.

The experiment was conducted during the year 2019-20 by Vegetable Section, Agriculture Research Station (ARS) Baffa Mansehra to compare garden soil with nitrogen (Urea) and potassium (Murate of Potash) for lettuce production in glass house. Lettuce is an important summer off-season and high valued crop cultivated at District Mansehra in the months of July-August. The produce is transported to other metropolises with handsome earning,  but excessive use of minerals and synthetic fertilizers may render the produce less profitable in one or another way. Hence this experiment was designed to compare garden soil with  nitrogen and potassium doses.  It is evident from the statistical analysis that garden soil has a significant effect on  number of leaves, leaf area, seed per plant, yield per plant and yield per acre. Seed production is noticeable for garden soil when the prevailing temperature during seed formation was 250C.  In terms of leaf area maximum leaf area 576.10 cm2was recorded for garden soil while minimum leaf area 303.43 cm2 was recorded with nitrogen applied @ 200 kg ha-1 and potassium applied @ 100 kg ha-1 respectively. Maximum number of leaves 28.03 was recorded for garden soil while the minimum number 21.96 was recorded for nitrogen applied @ 200 kg ha-1 and potassium applied @ 100 kg ha-1. Seed formation was successful with mean temperature 250C in glass house for 30 days, here again garden soil surpassed nitrogen and potassium with 4.03gm plant-1. Yield per plot 3.69 kg was recorded for garden soil and the minimum value 1.1843 kg was recorded for nitrogen and potassium applied @ 200 kg ha-1 nitrogen while potassium applied @ 100 kg ha-1. Garden soil gives maximum yield of 13600 kg acre-1 compared with the lowest production 6070.5 kg acre-1 of nitrogen and potassium applied @ 200 kg ha-1 nitrogen while potassium applied @ 150 kg ha-1.  Keywords:, Lettuce, garden soil, leaf area, seed production, glass house DOI: 10.7176/CEIS/14-2-06 Publication date:May 31st 202