EFFECT OF PRILLED AND GRANULAR UREA ON THE GROWTH AND YIELD ON CUCUMBER (Cucumis sativus. L) CULTIVARS IN SOUTHERN GUINEA SAVANNAH, NIGERIA
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Date
2022
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Abstract
A pot experiment was conducted between March and July 2021 at the screen
house of the Department of Crop Production, Kwara State University, Malete
in the Southern Guinea Savannah agro-ecology, Nigeria to evaluate the
response of cucumber cultivars to prilled and granular urea. The study consists
of three cucumber cultivars (Basma, Pico and Pointset) and two forms of urea
(prilled and granular urea) and the control laid out in a 3×3 factorial
combinations in a completely randomized design replicated three times. Data
were collected on the following variables: number of leaves, vine length, leaf
area, days to 50% flowering and fruiting, fruit length and fruit circumference,
and fruit yield/ha. Data were subjected to Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and
treatment means where significant difference exist, were separated using
Duncan Multiple Range Test at 5% level of probability. The control treatment
significantly had shorter vine length at 4 and 6 weeks after sowing (WAS)
compared to the granular and prilled urea application. Application of prilled
urea was superior to granular urea on the vine length at 4 and 6 WAS. All the
cultivars had similar leaf area at 8 WAS. There were no significant differences
on days to 50% fruiting and fruit circumference among the three cultivars. The
control treatment, however, took longer days to attain 50% flowering in
Poinsett cultivar compared to other treatments. In addition, the control
treatment also significantly had shorter fruit length, poor fruit yield compared
to application of granular and prilled urea fertilizers. Application of prilled
urea significantly produced higher fruit yield/hectare than granular urea in
Basma and Pico cultivars. The least fruit yield/plant 5.00, 4.62, and 3.92 t ha1
respectively for Basma, Pico and Poinsett were obtained at the control
treatment. Basma cultivar recorded the highest fruit yield (17.36 t ha-1
) with
application of prilled urea fertilizer and hence, recommended.