Effect of prilled and granular urea on the growth and yield on cucumber (Cucumis sativus. L) cultivars in Southern Guinea Savannah, Nigeria

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.