STUDY ON MORPHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL AND YIELD CHARACTERISTICS OF SIXTEEN OKRA VARIETIES

An experiment was conducted at the research farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, from March to July 2014 to identify the high yielding okra variety. Sixteen okra varieties, viz., Shaymol Bangla, Sarosh-3, BARI Dherosh-1, Porosh Plus, OK-285, Deb-412, Parvani Kranti, Kalatia, Green soft, Arka Anamika, Malvika, Green valley, Toa DK-2, Shehzadi, Gunjon, Kochi were used in this study. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. All growth and yield parameters showed significant difference. Early anthesis occurred in OK-285 prior to any other varieties (at 23.66 days). Minimum incidence of YVMV was found from the variety Sharosh-3 (5.54%). All other characteristics viz. plant height (114.83 cm), Chlorophyll content (6.5 mg g^-1), days required for 80% germination (4.33 days), net assimilation rate (1.683 g m^-2d^-1), intercellular CO₂ concentration (8.63 ppm), respiration rate (65.40 ppt/s) and stomatal conductance (0.64 molm^-2s^-1), pods plant^-1 (10.96)  and pod  yield (14.26 t ha^-1) were superior for variety Green valley.