Abstract:
The objectives of these study were to examine the influence of water deficit and manure on growth and yield of Java Tea (Orthosiphon aristatus (Blum) Mig. Two experiments were conducted at the green house of Faculty of Agricultural Technology, King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Bangkok, during August, 2015 to February, 2016. The aims of the first study were to investigated the effects of water deficit at difference growth stages on Java tea production. The experiment was conducted during November, 2015 to February, 2016. A Split plot in randomized complete block design with three replications was used. Main plots was water deficit at different growth stages such as water deficit at 15, 30 and 60 days after planting (DAP), respectively, whereas water deficit duration treatments for 1, 3, 5 and 7 days were as sub plots. The results disclosed that for various water deficit treatments, water deficit at 60 DAP with water deficit for 1 day Java Tea gave the highest plant height, total stem, leaf and root dry weight and total dry weight yield whereas the lowest was water deficit at 15 DAP and water deficit for 7 days. The second experiment was conducted under greenhouse condition during August to February, 2015, to investigate the effect of chicken and cow manure applications at the rate of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 tons rai' on stem growth and leaf dry weight yield of Java Tea. The treatments were laid out in a split plot design and 3 replications, with two manures (chicken and cow manures) as the main plot and six manure application rates (0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 ton rai-1) as sub plots. The results revealed that chicken manure gave higher stem height, stem, leaf, root and total dry weights per plant and leaf dry weight yields than cow manure. The highest manure rate of 5 tons rai-1 gave the highest plant height, stem and leaf dry weight and leaf dry weight yields followed by 4, 3, 2, 1 and 0 tons rai-1, respectively. There were not significantly different interactions between the types of organic manure and manure fertilizer application rates. However, the recommendation to the farmers who grown Java Tea is to apply chicken manure at the rate of 4 tons rai-1 to get the obtimum yield.