The study was conducted on the existing multilayer garden at the Germplasm Centre (GPC) of fruit Tree Improvement Project (FTIP), Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh during March to December 2009. The Experimental field is located at 24°25´N Latitude and 90°50´E Longitude at an elevation of 18 m above the sea level and climate is characterized by heavy rainfall during the months from April to September and scanty rainfall during the rest period of the year. Total rainfall was 76.90 cm during the crop season. The soil of the experimental area was silty loam in texture. It was a medium high land, fertile, well-drained and slightly acidic in nature with pH 5.7 and the amount of organic carbon, total N, available P, and K were 0.835%, 0.068, 18ppm and 0.28 me/100g of soil , respectively. Spices e.g ginger and turmeric were laid out on the Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with single factor experiment. Five treatments were used in this study viz. T1 = Spices grown under open condition, T2 = Sissoo + Guava spices based agroforestry system (partial shade condition), T3 = Sissoo + Lemon + spices based agro-forestry system (severe shade condition), T4 = Coconut + Guava + spices based agro-forestry system (partial shade condition) and T5 = Coconut + Lemon + spices based agro-forestry system (severe shade condition) were replicated thrice in 5X2 X3 m plot size.
In treatment T1 sunlight was allowed to fall over the spices without any barrier which was consider as 100% light level. The seed rhizomes / finger of the turmeric var. Dimla were planted maintaining 50X25 cm spacing between and within the rows at a depth of 7.5 cm. The seed rhizomes of ginger were planted maintaining a row to row distance of 60 cm and plant to plant distance of 20 cm. The depth of planting was 9-10 cm.. Recommended doses of fertilizers were applied to the experimental plots of turmeric and ginger were 66 kg, 22 kg, 54 kg, 12 kg, 0.6 kg and 90 kg, 34 kg, 76 kg, 12 kg, 0.6 kg as N, P, K, S and Zn per hectare respectively. Half of the nitrogen and full dose of other fertilizers should be applied at the time of land preparation. The remaining N should be applied at 6 weeks of growth followed by irrigation. Crop was raised by following general agronomic practices.
Turmeric was harvested on December 2009 after 270 days of planting when leaves turned yellow and started drying up. Ginger was harvested on November when leaves turned yellow and started to dry. Ten plants were randomly selected recording data on the following parameters: height of the main plat, number of leaves per hill, number of tillers per hill, weight of primary fingers, weight of secondary fingers, fresh weight of rhizomes per hill, yield of rhizomes per hectare. In turmeric data on the following characters were collected from 10 selected plants/plot for plant height, number of leaves per clump, number of mother rhizome, weight of mother rhizome, number and weight of primary fingers, number and weight of secondary fingers, weight of secondary fingers, leaf length and breadth, yield of fresh rhizome per clump and yield of fresh rhizome per hectare. The data on various characters of spices were statistically analyzed to draw a valid conclusion.