Red Ladyfinger’s Excellent Results with Polysulphate

Good quality, robust field trials help to demonstrate how effective fertilizers are at increasing crop yields and profitability. While there is no doubt about the value of statistically significant results, sometimes it is also great to see how things are progressing while a trial is underway rather than waiting for the final papers to be published.

Red Ladyfinger on Trial

Today, we have an update from an ongoing Polysulphate trial by Miss K. Karthika, a master’s degree student working with her supervisor, Dr. P.K. Karthikeyan, Assistant Professor at Annamalai University’s Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry in South India. Miss Karthika has been running a trial with Red Ladyfinger on her village farm on the banks of the Kollidam River in Thiruvenganur, Tamil Nadu, India.

improving okra with Polysulphate fertilizer

What is Red Ladyfinger?

Red Ladyfinger is a type of okra. Originally from Africa, okra is a vegetable widely used in African, Caribbean, Creole, Cajun, and Indian cuisine. The name Ladyfinger comes from the vegetables’ distinctive long, elegantly tapering shape. The flavor of Ladyfinger is described as subtle, so it benefits from being cooked with spicy ingredients, where it is often used to help thicken soups, stews, and other dishes.

Adding Polysulphate

Miss Karthika’s trial is comparing the impact of 9 different fertilizer treatments on Red Ladyfinger’s growth, yield, and quality. With four fertilizer treatments using different application rates of Polysulphate, four using MOP (muriate of potash, potassium chloride), and one control treatment tested in 3 replications in a randomized block design, the results of the completed trial should withstand scrutiny. But, as the trial is still underway, we will have to wait a little longer for the full results.

What Miss Karthika has just shared with us are some photos of the plot and of the difference the treatments have made to the size and color of the Red Ladyfinger, and the difference is impressive.

Miss K Karthika shows the much larger and redder Red Ladyfinger from the Polysulphate treated plot

Polysulphate Increases Size and Improves Okra Color

The Polysulphate application produced the largest okra with the best color compared to the other eight treatments. Of course, the trial needs to reach its conclusion so the results can be properly analyzed, but it is hard not to be impressed with the differences Miss Karthika has shared so far.