Tropical jute with coated and uncoated urea

Jute ( Corchorus capsularis L.) is grown in the tropics. It is next only to cotton in importance as a fibre crop. Adequate supplies of plant nutrients, especially N, are essential for its vegetative growth. Response to applied N varies from region to region. In a light-textured soil with low cation exchange capacity (CEC), part of the applied N is generally lost mostly under rainfall (Engelsted & Russel, 1975) and the rest is manifested in the form of residual effect (McEwen, 1970). Such losses can be reduced by using slow-release N fertilizers or by coating the urea granules by paraffin wax, resin, gum, lac, or with a nitrification inhibitor (Prasad, Raj ale & Lakhdive, 1971). There is little information on the use of these products on jute. Mondal, Dohary & Pal (1977) reported that coated urea is better than uncoated ones. The current programme was designed to give a better picture.