ABSTRACT

A two-year field experiment was conducted during the cropping seasons of 2019 and 2020 to examine the influence of different organic manure sources, NPK fertilizer and combined application of organic manure and NPK fertilizer on the growth and yield of cucumber at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike situated in a rain forest agro-ecology. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The treatments were sole application of organic manures (poultry manure, goat manure and rabbit manure at 10 t/ha, NPK fertilizer at 300 kg/ha and combination of organic manures and NPK fertilizer at 5 t/ha and 150 kg/ha, respectively. The results showed that the application of poultry manure closely followed by a combined application of poultry manure and NPK fertilizer significantly (P<0.05) increased the vine length, number of leaves per plant, leaf area, leaf area index, fruit weight, fruit length, fruit diameter, number of fruits and fresh fruit yield compared to the other treatments investigated. The highest fresh fruit yield per hectare was recorded in year 2019 cropping season, which was higher by 24.56% compared to year 2020 cropping season while the interaction between poultry manure and year 2019 gave the highest fresh fruit yields. Therefore, poultry manure source or a combination of poultry manure and NPK fertilizer can be adjudged to be better sources of high soil nutrients for cucumber production in Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title                                                                                  Page

Title Page                                                                                                                    i

Declaration                                                                                                                 ii

Certification                                                                                                               iii

Dedication                                                                                                                  iv

Acknowledgments                                                                                                      v

Table of contents                                                                                                        vi

List of tables                                                                                                               vii

List of figures                                                                                                             viii

Abstract                                                                                                                      ix

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION                                                                            1

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW                                                               5

2.1       The Cucumber Crop                                                                                       5

2.2       Environmental Factors that affect Cucumber                                                6

2.2.1    Temperature                                                                                                   6

2.2.2    Humidity                                                                                                         6

2.2.3    Solar Radiation                                                                                               7

2.2.4    Water (Moisture)                                                                                            8

2.3       Application of Organic Manure                                                                     9

2.4       Application of Inorganic Fertilizer                                                                11

2.5       Integrated Nutrient Management                                                                   12

2.6       Effects of Organic Manure on Soil Biological Life                                       15

2.7       Effect of Inorganic Fertilizer on Soil Biological Life                                                16

2.8       Effects of Organic and Inorganic Fertilizer on Soil Biological Life                        17

CHAPTER 3: MATERIALS AND METHOD                                                      19

3.1       Experimental Site                                                                                           19

3.2       Field Preparation and Soil Sampling                                                              19

3.3       Planting Materials                                                                                          19

3.4       Experimental Design                                                                                      20

3.5       Experimental Treatments                                                                               20

3.6       Treatment Application                                                                                   20

3.7       Planting and Field Maintenance                                                                     21

3.8       Growth and Yield Parameters                                                                        21

3.9       Statistical Analysis                                                                                         23

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION                                                      24

4.1       Results                                                                                                            24

4.2       Discussion                                                                                                       42

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION                             46       

5.1       Conclusion and Recommendation                                                                 43

References                                                                                                      49

LIST OF TABLES

4.1       Physico-chemical properties of the soil of the experimental sites in

2019 and 2020 cropping seasons.                                                                   22

4.2       Meteorological data of the study area in 2019 and 2020 cropping seasons.           23

4.3       Chemical analysis of the organic manure                                                      24

4.4         Influence of organo- minerals on growth attributes of cucumber in

2019 and 2020 cropping seasons                                                                                  26

4.5       Influence of organo-minerals on fruit yield and yield attributes of cucumber

in 2019 and 2020 cropping seasons.                                                               28

4.6         Combined analysis of variance of growth attributes of cucumber across

two years                                                                                                         31.

4.7         Combined analysis of variance of yield and yield attributes of cucumber across

two years.                                                                                                        33

4.8         Correlation matrix of growth and yield attributes of cucumber in 2019

cropping season.                                                                                             34

4.9         Correlation matrix of growth and yield attributes of cucumber in 2020

cropping season                                                                                              35

LIST OF FIGURES

4. 1      Relationship between leaf area index and fresh fruit yield of cucumber (t ha-¹)

with quadratic curve in 2019 copping season (a) and 2020 cropping

season (b)                                                                                                        37

4.2       Relationship between fruit diameter and fresh fruit yield of cucumber (t ha-¹)

with Linear regression line in 2019 cropping season (a) and 2020 copping

season (b)                                                                                                        38

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) is an important vegetable and one of the most popular members of the cucurbitaceae family. It is one of the oldest vegetables cultivated by man with historical records dating back 5,000 years (Wehner and Guner, 2004). It originated from an area in India between the Himalayas and the Bay of Bengal. China is the largest producer of cucumber amounting to about two third of the global supply (Matinez and Nagai, 2006).

Cucumber is a major vegetable crop worldwide and develops rapidly with a shorter time from planting to harvest than for most crops (Wehner and Guner, 2004). It is not characterized with erect/woody stem but possesses creeping tendrils or climbing vines, which produce cylindrical fruits. Some cucumber varieties available in Nigeria are Ashley, Market More, Poinsett-76, Super Marketer, Beith-Alpha, Centriole Marketer, Royal F_1, among others.

Cucumber plant requires moderate warm temperature, less humidity, soil moisture, optimum sunlight and good soil texture (Papadopoulous, 1994). It is adapted to a wide variety of soil types but preferably in areas with good drainage, adequate soil water holding capacity and optimum pH of 5.5 – 7.0 (Grubben and Denton, 2004). It requires high amount of soil nutrients from seedling stage to maturity, and highly sensitive to excessive water or water logged environment; adequate soil tillage for easy fragile root penetration is required prior to sowing (Nweke et al., 2014).

It can be cultivated at any time of the year as it is a warm season crop (Nu, 1998). In Nigeria, it can be cultivated at any time during the rainy season where it is grown under rain fed condition and during dry season using irrigation facilities and as a result; it can be available in Nigerian market throughout the year.

Cucumber is the fourth most important vegetable crop after tomato, cabbage and onion in Asia (Tatiliogle, 1993), the second most important vegetable after tomato in Western Europe (Phu, 1997). Young or ripe cucumber fruits are usually cooked vegetables or made into chutney (Grubben and Denton, 2004). There is increased consumption of cucumber fruits possibly because of its high nutritional value. The nutritional composition of cucumber include protein 0.8g, fat 0.2g and carbohydrate 3.1g including 2.0g of sugar as primary metabolites along with dietary fibre, which is important for the digestive system. It contains some essential vitamins and anti-oxidants, which is effective in human health (Grubben and Denton, 2004; Wang et al., 2007).

In Nigeria, cucumber is a relatively recent addition to the diet as it is a primary source of minerals and vitamins in human diet (Mah, 1989), due to its potassium content (50-80 mg 100 g^-1), cucumber can be useful for high and low blood pressure (Kashif et al., 2008). It is a very good source of vitamins A, C, K, B6; it also provides dietary fibres, pantothenic acid, magnesium, phosphorus, copper, manganese (Vimala et al., 1994). It serves as insect killer due to steroid stuffing (Wang et al., 2007). Production of cucumber in Nigeria has increased probably due to awareness being created by its market demand and economic returns, short duration in maturity or due to its nutritional and medicinal values. Hence it has become a popular vegetable crop in Nigeria (Nweke et al., 2014). Increase in cucumber production can be achieved either by putting more land area under its cultivation or by using improved varieties with appropriate cultural practices. However, plant nutrient application either in the form of organic or mineral fertilizer is found to be the quickest and easiest ways of increasing the yield of the crop per unit area (Nweke and Nsoanya, 2015).

Fertilizers are substances which supply one or more plant nutrients to the soil when added. They are important to crops, especially cucumber (Harts and Nelian, 2000). Fertilizer is used to increase soil fertility and the content of minerals to support plant growth as well as optimum yield (Guritno and Sitompu, 2010). The improvement of soil fertility through the application of fertilizers has become an essential factor that enables the world to feed billions of people (Brady and Weil, 1999).

Organic manure is a compound fertilizer that contains one or more kinds of organic matter and the ingredients may be animal or vegetable matter or a combination of the two. Manure is natural and does not destroy the soil. It provides macronutrients (nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus, potassium and sulphur) and micronutrients (iron, boron, zinc, cobalt, molybdenum) (Samadi, 2010). Farm yard manure and other organic manures release nutrients slowly and steadily and activate soil microbial biomass (Ayuso et al., 1996; Belay et al., 2001).

Inorganic fertilizer (referred to as synthetic fertilizer) is manufactured artificially and contains minerals or synthetic chemicals typically made from petroleum or natural gas including phosphorus, potassium and other trace elements often mined from the earth. The proper use of inorganic fertilizer can improve crop yield, soil pH, total nutrient content and nutrient availability to plants (Akande et al., 2010). They help the growing crops to withstand stress conditions and in some cases these are used to correct plant nutrients deficiencies (Nweke and Nsoanya, 2015).

Organo-mineral fertilizer is a low input technology of improving the nutrient status of tropical soils for sustainable crop production; they combine the attributes of both organic and inorganic fertilizers (Ayeni, 2008). The complementary use of organic and inorganic fertilizer has been recommended for sustenance of long term cropping in the tropics (Ipimoroti et al., 2002). Fuchs et al. (1970) reported that nutrients from mineral fertilizer enhance the establishment of crops while those from mineralization of organic manures promote yield when both fertilizers were combined. Therefore, integrating nutrient sources can help boost the production of cucumber and meet up with the quantity demanded by the society as cucumber is a short duration crop that requires fast release of nutrients in the field, which conventional fertilizer can do better than organic manure (Marjan, 2005). In spite of the increasing relevance of cucumber in Nigeria, especially the south eastern region low yield is obtained in farmers’ fields because of declining soil fertility due to continuous cropping and disregard for soil amendment measures (Mahamod et al., 1999). It is necessary to increase the production of cucumber to supplement the high intake of carbohydrate in Nigeria. The overall objective of this study is to ascertain the effect of organo-mineral fertilizers on the growth and yield of cucumber while the specific objectives were to:

i.         determine the influence of sole application of different organic manure sources (poultry, rabbit and goat manures) on the growth and yield of cucumber,

ii.         assess the influence of NPK fertilizer on the growth and yield of cucumber,

iii.         evaluate the influence of combined application of organic manure and NPK fertilizer combinations on the growth and yield of cucumber.

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