EFFECT OF DE-TOPPING ON LEAF YIELD OF JUTE GENOTYPES AS VEGETABLES

In Bangladesh, number of leafy vegetables is very limited in the early summer. Most of the Bangladeshi people cannot afford vegetables due its higher price during that time. However, jute leaf can fulfill this demand and yield of jute leaf need to be increased. Therefore, an experiment was conducted at the research field in Jute Agriculture Experimental Station, Manikganj, during the month of April to June, 2020 in order to observe the effect of de-topping on leaf yield of jute genotypes as vegetables. De-topping showed the positive effect on number of branches (3.3 branches/ plant), number of leaves (55.9 leaves/ plant) and total leaf weight (37.9 g/ plant). Plant height was comparatively lower in de-topped jute plant, however plant base diameter was not affected. De-topping also affected jute genotypes significantly. Although de-topping did not affect the branching in jute genotypes but O-72 gave the highest leaf weight (35.8 g leaves/ plant) compare to the O-9897 and Accession-3840. Interaction analysis also found that de-topping increased total leaf yield in O-9897 and O-72 genotypes. Results revealed that de-topping can meet up the increasing demand of leafy vegetables through increasing yield of jute leaves.