Assessment of growth and development of common beans irrigated with treated wastewater

The low level of common beans production in Tanzania has been attributed partly to low levels of soil plant-available phosphorus. In view of that, a screen house experiment was conducted to recover phosphorus from treated wastewater and to assess its effects on growth parameters of common beans. Three irrigation treatments (T0: freshwater, T1: freshwater and fertiliser, T2: treated wastewater) were used. The experiment was laid out in a Completely Randomized Design with 20 replications. Results showed that Treated wastewater significantly (P < 0.05) improved days to 50% flowering and maturity compared to other treatments. Beans irrigated with treated wastewater also had significantly higher (P < 0.05) height, number of branches, number of pods and number of leaves than in T0 and T1. Maximum dry weight was also obtained from treated wastewater treatment compared to the other treatments. The study indicated that treated wastewater could be used in common beans production.