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International Journal of Horticulture 2014, Vol.4, No.12, 58
-
63
http://ijh.biopublisher.ca
58
Research Report Open Access
Morphological and Yield Performances of Okra (
Abelmoschus Esculentus
) as
Influenced by Soil Ammneded With Poultry Manure and N.P.K 15-15-15
Fertilizer in Ikorodu, Nigeria
Sanni K.O.
Department of Crop Production and Horticulture, Lagos State Polytechnic, P. O. Box 249, Ikorodu, Lagos State, Nigeria
Corresponding author email: sannikehinde2002@gmail.com;
Authors
International Journal of Horticulture, 2014, Vol.4, No.12 doi: 10.5376/ijh.2014.04.0012
Received: 14 Apr., 2014
Accepted: 21 Apr., 2014
Published: 29 May, 2014
Copyright
© 2014 Sanni, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article
:
Sanni, 2014, Morphological and Yield Performances of Okra (
Abelmoschus Esculentus
) as Influenced by Soil Ammneded With Poultry Manure and N.P.K
15-15-15 Fertilizer in Ikorodu, Nigeria, International Journal of Horticulture, 2014, Vol.4, No.12 58-63 (doi: 10.5376/ijh.2014.04.0012)
Abstract
Soil fertility depletion in small holder farm is the fundamental cause of declining per capital food production. This study
was carried out to evaluate the performance of poultry manure (PM) and NPK 15-15-15 fertilizers on the growth and yield of okra
(
Abelmochus esculentus
) in Ikorodu agro ecological zone, Lagos, Nigeria. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete
Block Design (RCBD), replicated three times. Okra growth parameters were assessed taking data on plant height at 3, 6, and 9 WAS,
number of leaves at 3 and 6 WAS, while yield performance was assessed at harvest (number of fruit, fruit weight). The result showed
that application of PM significantly (P<0.05) enhance plant height growth, number of leaves at 6 and 9 weeks after sowing (WAS)
and number of fruits; while the average weights of the fruits was significantly (P<0.05) influenced by NPK fertilizer compared to
other treatments. Comparatively both PM and NPK fertilizer significantly increase the growth and yield of okra compared with the
control. PM performed better than NPK fertilizer. Therefore, PM could be used as alternative source of plant nutrient in Ikorodu agro
ecological zone for continuous and sustainable okra production on degraded soil.
Keywords
Agro ecological; Fruit weight; Growth and yield; Performance; Plant height
Introduction
Okra is one of the most important vegetables crop in
Nigeria in terms of consumption and production area
(Iremiren and Okiy, 1986). It ranks first before other
vegetable crops (Babatunde et al., 2007) due to its
nutritional benefit in human diet, and it has
contributed immensely to the economic status of
farmers especially those that engaged in large scale
production of the crop in dry season. It is consumed in
almost every household in Nigeria. Being a short
duration vegetable crop, its growth, yield and quality
are largely influenced by the application of fertilizers.
It requires proper and sufficient N and K for regular
fruiting and subsequent pickings (Premsekhar and
Rajashree, 2009). Meanwhile, total okra production in
Nigeria was low due to several factors therefore
importation of okra into Lagos therefore becomes a
necessity especially when the annual population
growth rate is about 2% (FAO, 2009) which exceed its
food production. Among the factors that contribute to
low okra yield in Nigeria is low soil fertility and
unfavourable soil physical properties such as bulk
density (Adekiya and Ojeniyi, 2002). The low
inherent soil fertility status limits the development of
sustainable crop production systems even as nutrients
are rapidly lost following the opening up of lands for
cultivation and continuous cropping. There is
therefore, the need to increase the productivity of the
crop by improving the soil condition upon which it is
grown. Hence, the need to maintain the fertility of
upland soils for continuous crop production that
emphasizes the use of external inputs at economic
levels (Opara-Nadi, 1993). Farmers and gardeners
have long recognized the role of manure in replacing
nutrients of soils depleted by continuous cropping,
leaching, crop removal, erosion and runoff. These
organic nutrient sources (livestock manure, crop
residues, municipal wastes, biomass transfer etc) may
be used as alternatives to chemical fertilizers. The
most popular are manures derived from livestock
(cattle, poultry, sheep and goats) (Omolayo et al.,
2011). Organic fertilizers have beneficial effect on
nutrient composition, structural, aggregation, infiltration,
ration, microbial and other biological activities of the
soil; this and with a host of others will subsequently
improve soil productivity, particularly in the tropics.
Inorganic fertilizer on the other hand have high
concentration of nutrients and readily available to