IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2014) 5-1

Research article
erdAppropriate Chemical Fertilizer Application Rates
on Yield and Yield Components of Red Roselle,
Cultivar: Surin
RATCHATA TONWITOWAT*Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi, Pathumtani, Thailand
Email: ratchatatonwitowat@yahoo.com
Received 1 November 2013

Accepted 1 March 2014(*Corresponding Author)

Abstract The experiment of appropriate chemical fertilizer application rates on yield,
yield components, dry calyx acid and seed oil contents in red roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa)
cultivar: Surin with 4 chemical fertilizer rates (16-16-16: 0, 25, 50 and 75 kg/rai; 1 rai =1,600 m2) was conducted at Faculty of Agricultural Technology; Rajamangala Universityof Technology Thanyaburi; Pathumtani province, during late July to December 2010 by
RCB design 4 replications. The results indicated that some agronomic characteristics, yieldand yield components of all red roselles with applied in any rate of the chemical fertilizer
were higher than the non-applied one. The rate of 75 kg/rai brought red roselle not only
got better in growth of vegetative parts (192.2 centimeters of plant height, 10 mainbranches), faster in 50% first flower blooming date (only 100 days after planting), longer
periods of flowering and maturation of the first fruit (22 and 23 days after the first bloomflower) but also gave greater in yield components (38.8 fresh fruits, 179.2 and 24.1 grams
fresh and dry calyx , 31.1 grams of seeds/plant), these supported the roselle to get thehighest yield (764.8, 103.0 and 132.8 kg/rai of fresh calyx, dry calyx and seed weightrespectively). Nevertheless when considering to the harvest index, the highest rate offertilizer applied roselle plot was equal to that non-applied plot (0.36). Regarding to theanalysis of dry calyx acid and seed oil contents in red roselle, all treatments by averagecontained 13-16% of acid and 20-21% of seed oil.
Keywords red roselle, chemical fertilizer rates, yield, yield components, dry calyx acid,seed oil contents

INTRODUCTION
Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa), a member of Malvaceae family, is a tropical crop which has thevarious uses, started from home consumption to medicinal and industrial uses. Red calyxes areutilized as reagent for jelly, jam, beverages, sauces and food preserves (Abo-Baker and Mostada,2011). Fresh calyxes are filled with greater amount of ascorbic acid and also rich in riboflavin,niacin, carotene, calcium and iron while dry calyxes presents antimicrobial as well as antioxidant
activities due to its phenolic compounds: flvanoids, gossypetine, hibiciscetine and saddaretine.
Seeds of roselle have been found to be a good of protein (Anokwuru et al., 2011 and Qi et al.,2005). Furthermore, the calyx extraction had a great therapeutic action for curing heart and nerve
diseases and high blood pressure (Hassan, 2009).
Roselle is one of the target medicinal herbs that Thai government desired to push theirproducts to share in the international markets. Thailand used to be the outstanding exporter of highquality dry roselle calyxes before the occurrence of economic crisis. From the analytic report ofroselle production, market and processing, OAE (2007) had concluded that despite roselle products
have a big chance for markets but there are some obstructions: in part of production, mostplantations are in small scale (only 5-6 rai/grower) with using the local growing practices, lackingof good varieties and agricultural practicing, then led to low productive efficiency. Indeed,systematic cultivation of this medicinal plant needs specific cultural, management practices andagronomical recommendations. Fertilizer is a major factor affecting crop production, to search forⒸ ISERD

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optimum rate of application being one important cultural practice needs to be standardized.
Unfortunately, until now there is very few of available research papers that could be supported theroselle production in commercial scale.
OBJECTIVE
This investigation was aimed to find the response of red roselle to 4 chemical fertilizer rates (1616-16 : 0, 25, 50 and 75 kg/rai; 1 rai = 1,600 m2) on yield, yield components, acid content in dry
calyxes and oil content in seeds.
METHODOLOGY
Field trial was carried out at the Agronomic field of Agricultural Technology Faculty, RMUTT,
during late July to December 2010. Before planting, the soil sample from field was taken and sent
to Soil and Plant Laboratory of Rice Department of Thailand for properties analysis (the results
were Sandy clay loam texture, pH 6.3, Organic matter 2.23%, Total N 0.11%, P2O5 123 ppm, K2O
241 ppm, CEC 9.76 meq/100g). Simultaneously the compost and manure samples were brought toanalyse for NPK contents in Soil and Plant Laboratory at Kasetsart University (compost: 1.12%N;
0.46% P2O5 and 1.03% K2O, manure: 1.49%N; 0.57% P2O5 and 1.30% K2O). At the land
preparation time or two weeks before planting, one tons of farmyard manure mixed with one ton ofcompost per rai were uniform applied to all plots as basal application.
The experiment was arranged in RCB design with 4 replications and 4 level of chemicalfertilizer application rates (formula 16-16-16: 0, 25, 50 and 75 kg/rai) which were applied at 3weeks after planting. Two-three seeds/hill were sown (two weeks later thinned to one plant/stand)at 75x50 centimeters, 5 rows in 21 square meters of plot size. Ten sample plants in the middle rowsof each plot were observed for agronomic characteristics: plant height, number of main branches,
50 % of 1st flower blooming date, flowering periods and 1st fruit maturation date. At maturity,
dark red fresh fruit of ten sample plants in each plot were harvested for collecting yield and yieldcomponents data : number of fresh fruits/plant, fresh calyx weight/plant, dry calyx weight/plant,
seed weight/plant, 1000 seeds weight, fresh and dry calyxes yield, seed yield and harvest index.
The 200 g of dry calyxes and seeds of each treatment were taken to Agricultural and AgroIndustrial Product Improvement Institute at Kasetsart University for analysed the contents of dry
calyx acid and seed oil.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Some Agronomic Characteristics
Highly significant increase in plant height and number of main branches/plant was observed withchemical fertilizer application by the 120 days after planting when compare with the control
treatment (2 tons of compost mixed with manure only). The plant height varied from 145.9 cm innon fertilized plants to 191.2 cm in plant that received the highest rate of chemical fertilizer (75kg/rai). In case of number of main branches/plant, it seems that all fertilized plants progressivelyincreased their number of main branches/plant from 3 branches of control treatment to 8-10
branches/plant. Generally, fertilized plants would perform better than non fertilized one. (Akanbi etal., 2009)
When considering to the data analysis of 50 % of 1st flower blooming date, flowering periods
and 1st fruit maturation date, it showed that the highest rate of application plant took shortest time
to reach 50% of 1st flower blooming, equal to 3-11 days faster when compared with the lower rates
and control treatments. Moreover, it spent a little longer period of flowering (since the first to lastflower blooming) and 1st fruit maturation (duration between flower blooming and mature fruit).
Plants in higher fertilizer rate flowered earlier might be because of the vigorous and rapid growthⒸ ISERD132

IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2014) 5-1of plants which brought them to attain the competent stage of flowering. Oyewole and Mera (2010)
reported that manure application promoted vegetative growth in roselle, while nitrogen had
elongated the juvenile stage in plant, thus delaying crop maturity.
Table 1 Some agronomic characteristics of red roselle “Surin” at different rates of chemicalfertilizer
Fertilizer(16-16-16)(kg/rai)Control
25
5075
F testCV.(%)

Plant height at
120 day after
planting (cm)145.9b186.9a186.4a191.2a**6.44

No. of mainbranches/plant
2.8c
8.3b
9.3ab
9.8a
**
9.75

50 % of 1stflower blooming
date (days)
111.0a104.2b103.0b100.2c**
1.24

Flowering
periods (days)
37.5b
20.8ab
00.5a
03.7a
**
4.59

1st fruitmaturation
date (days)
21.8c
22.6b
22.7b
23.3a**
1.19

Means followed by the same letter at the same column were not significantly different by LSD*, ** significant at P<0.05 and 0.01, respectively and ns not significant

Yield and Yield Components
Different chemical fertilizer rates had significant effect on yield and yield components of deep redroselle “Surin”. Application of 75 kg/rai plots gave the highest number of fresh fruits, fresh and dry
calyxes weight/plant/rai, seed weight/plant and seed yield/rai. Meanwhile the application in 50kg/rai plants had all components and yield which were at par with the 25 kg/raI ones. Nevertheless,both got in higher values than control treatment equal to 1.3-1.4 times. However, increased inapplication of the chemical fertilizer rates did not show the significant affect on the 1000 seed
weight. Okosun (2006) reported that the 20 kgN/ha did enhance the number of fruits and seed/fruit.
Furthermore, Haruna et al. (2011) found that the application of 60 kg/ha of nitrogen fertilizer and 5
tons/ha of poultry manure significantly increase calyx yield and profitability of roselle. Oyewoleand Mera (2010) observed that for the calyx, pod and seed production, the application of manure at
7.5 tons/ha or nitrogen at 75 kgN/ha gave the best yield. Anyinkeng and Mih (2011) concluded that
20 tons of poultry manure significantly increase growth, biomass and economic yield of roselle. Incase of the harvest index (calyx plus seed yield), it was found the significant effect on. The
increased fertilizer rate from control to 50 kg/rai had reduced the harvest index value. However,when topped up to 75 kg/rai, the value was speed up but not over the control. Atta et al. (2010) also
discovered that the supplying 50-100 kgN/ha significantly decreased seed and calyx harvest
indexes relative to control (0 kgN/ha).
Table 2 Yield components of red roselle “Surin” at different rates of chemical fertilizer
Fertilizer(16-16-16)(kg/rai)Control
255075F testCV.(%)

No.of fresh
fruits/plant
10.8c
27.9b
28.5b
38.8a
**
11.62

Fresh calyx
weight/plant (g)47.5c
126.1b133.5b179.2a**14.88

Dry calyx
weight/plant (g)
8.2c
16.8b
18.4b
24.1a
**
13.5

Seed
weight/plant (g)
10.3c
22.5b
23.1b
31.1a
**
10.66

1000 seeds
weight (g)
37.5
37.8
37.5
37.5
ns
3.31

Means followed by the same letter at the same column were not significantly different by LSD*, ** significant at P<0.05 and 0.01, respectively and ns not significant

Data from Table 4 revealed that the pH of dry roselle calyxes were decreased after applied
higher chemical fertilizer rates which would be correlated with the gradually increased of acidcontent (titratable acidity percentage) that ranged from 13.21-16.06%. This is in accordance withthat obtained by Abo-Baker and Mostada (2011). Nevertheless, at any rates of fertilizer did notⒸ ISERD133

IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2014) 5-1

affect to the oil content in roselle seeds, the approximate value of seed oil content was equal to 2021%.
Table 3 Yield of red roselle “Surin” at different rates of chemical fertilizer
Fertilizer (16-16-16)(kg/rai)Control
255075F testCV.(%)

Yield of fresh calyx(kg/rai)
000..c.73..b333.3b
9...7a**12.99Yield of dry calyx(kg/rai)
35.2c
68.6b
78.1b
103.0a**12.28

Seed yield(kg/rai)
44.0c
96.0b
98.6b
132.8a
**10.67

Harvest Index
0.5.a
0.50b
0.50b
0.5.a
*
6.51

Means followed by the same letter at the same column were not significantly different by LSD*, ** significant at P<0.05 and 0.01, respectively and ns not significant

Table 4 pH, dry calyx acid content and seed oil content of red roselle “Surin” at different
rates of chemical fertilizer
Fertilizer (16-16-16)(kg/rai)Control255075pH
2.96 ± 0.02
2.96 ± 0.01
2.93 ± 0.01
2.82 ± 0.02

Dry calyx acid content(%)
13.21 ± 0.29
14.16 ± 0.41
14.01 ± 0.20
16.06 ± 0.13

Seed oil content(%)
19.71±0.18
21.45±0.04
19.93±0.49
19.83±0.90

CONCLUSION
For producing roselle to reach better yield and yield components, two tons of organic fertilizer(compost mix with farmyard manure) as basal application and 75 kg/rai of chemical fertilizer
application formula 16-16-16 are recommended.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my special thanks to RMUTT for providing the research fund.
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