PAPER TITLE :EFFECTS OF PLANTING SPACING AND HARVEST INTERVALS ON GROWTH, YIELD AND QUALITY OF OKRA (ABELMOSCHUS

APPLIED TROPICAL AGRICULTURE | VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1 2016

Paper Details

  • Author(s) : Falodun, E.J.* and Ogedegbe, S.A.
  • Abstract:

Field experiment was carried out in (April - July, 2015) to assess the response of planting spacing and harvest intervals on growth, yield and proximate composition of okra at the Teaching and Research Farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria. The experiment was laid out in a 4×3 factorial experiment in a randomized complete block design and replicated three times. The treatments consisted of four planting spacing, 40 cm x 30 cm, 50 cm x 30 cm, 60 cm x 30 cm and 70 cm x 30 cm) and three harvest intervals of (1 day, 2 days and 3days). Data were collected on growth and reproductive parameters as well as on fruit proximate compositions. The results obtained showed that plant height and leaf area were not significantly affected by planting spacing and harvest intervals. However, number of leaves and stem diameter per plant were significantly (p < 0.05) affected by planting spacing and ranged from 7.10 - 9.74 and 0.36 cm - 0.60 cm respectively, with the planting spacing of 70 cm × 30 cm producing the lowest number of leaves (7.10) and stem diameter (0.36 cm). There was a significant interaction of plant spacing and harvest frequency on leaf area. The pod length, pod diameter, pod weight and number of pods of okra were significantly (p < 0.05) affected by plant spacing. The spacing of 40 cm × 30 cm gave the highest pod yield (0.58 t/ha) while a further increase in spacing to 70 cm × 30 cm resulted in a decrease in pod yield (0.20 t/ha) of okra. Two days’ harvest interval produced the maximum value for pod weight per plant (8.57 g), number of pods (1.61) and pod yield (0.54 t/ha), while the lowest pod yields of 0.35 t/ha and 0.33 t/ha were recorded for 1 and 2 days harvest intervals respectively. The proximate composition (g/100 g) in dry weight basis of moisture content, ash content and crude fibre did not follow a particular trend with the different spacing studied. However, 2 days harvest interval favoured most of the proximate composition of okra fruits.