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EFFECTS OF NPK FERTILIZER AS FOLIAR SPRAY ON THE GROWTH AND YIELD OF SPINACH (SPINACIA OLERACEA, L.)

Sustainable agriculture is a vital aspect of long-term development, as it contributes to food security and the conservation of natural ecosystem biodiversity through the efficient use of agricultural inputs. It accomplishes this through enhancing agro-technology such as the foliar application of agrochemicals, which should be implied to ensure agricultural sustainability. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of foliar fertilizer application on plant growth and nutrition over soil application. A pot experiment was conducted to study the growth and yield response of spinach (Spinacia oleracea, L.) to foliar application of Urea-TSP-MoP. There were five treatments comprising of control, recommended NPK fertilizer dose applied in soil, and 0.002% level foliar spray NPK ratios 19:19:19, 10:20:30, and 30:10:10 respectively. A randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications was used to arrange the treatments. Results indicated that plant height (cm), number of leaves (plant-1), leaf blade length (cm), leaf blade width(cm), leaf petiole length(cm) was higher in foliar treatments. However, fresh weight of leaf(g), the total biomass of plant(t/ha), dry weight of plant(g), fresh root biomass (g), and dry root biomass (g), were obtained significantly greater in recommended NPK fertilizer comparison to control and foliar treatments. Application of recommended NPK fertilizer dose in soil application produced the highest fresh leaf mass and total yield of spinach 26.03 t/ha followed by foliar treatments of 23.20 t/ha, 22.20 t/ha, 23.40 t/ha, compared to control where obtained yield about 16.77 t/ha. There were no significant differences between foliar application for yield parameters of spinach. It is concluded that foliar feeding produces nearly the same yield as conventional feeding and is more sustainable.