Response of Radish (Raphanus sativus L.) to NPS Fertilizer and Inter row Spacing with Trait Correlation by PCA

Radish is an essential short-cycle vegetable crop for food security. However, poor agronomic practices constrain the crop. Hence, an experiment was carried out in Horro district, Ethiopia in 2022 in a factorial randomized complete block design with three repeats, radish plants were planted at five different NPS fertilizer rates (0, 50, 100, 150, and 200 kg ha-1) and three different inter row spacing (20, 30, and 40 cm) to examine the effect of NPS fertilizer and inter row spacing on growth and yield performance of radish crop. The results revealed that the main effects of NPS fertilizer rates and inter-row spacing were statistically significant (p<0.05) for all plant characteristics measured, except for fresh biomass yield, which showed significant interaction effects. The short maturity period makes the crop suitable for multiple-cropping systems. The 200 kg NPS ha-1 fertilizer rate and inter-row spacing of 40 cm have influenced the vegetative and root yield of the crop. The PCA plot showed a high positive correlation between traits, with the exception of days to maturity. While days to maturity, leaf number, leaf length, and plant height with high Cos2 values with long vectors were well represented on the PC plot. Generally, the results demonstrated that the maximum root yield of 41,111 kg ha-1 and fresh biomass of yield 124, 657 kg ha-1 with the combined application of 200 kg ha-1 NPS fertilizer and 40 cm inter-row spacing. The root and leaf yield potential of the radish crop needs to be improved Journal of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, Vol. 4 No. 1 (2026): AFNR Journal