ABSTRACT
In order to avoid water scarcity issues and to promote kitchen grading, hydrogel a super absorbent polymer is incorporated in soil for planting vegetables both chilly and ladies finger in agro bags. The main objective of this study is to identify the effect of hydrogel on growth and yield of both chilly and ladies finger. The various properties of the plant like the height of the plant, the number of leaves, yield, root structure etc. were analyzed for 0.2% of hydrogel by weight of soil. Study showed that hydrogel improves the vegetative growth of plants by retaining more moisture and nutrients within the soil. It modifies the plant-soil interaction resulting in the better use of absorption of water and nutrient from the soil. The comparison between plants cultivated in normal soil and 0.2% hydrogel mixed soil were done. It was found that even for minimum requirement of 0.2% of hydrogel can reduce the water consumption up to 50% as that of the normal plants without comprising the yield.
