Article Sidebar
Published:
Aug 31, 2021Keywords:
Article Details
NAJ supports free online communication and exchange of knowledge as the most effective way of ensuring that the fruits of research and development practice are made widely available. It is therefore committed to open access, which, for authors, enables the widest possible dissemination of their findings and, for readers, increases their ability to discover pertinent information. The Journal adopts and uses the CC: BY license and is open access. This license lets others distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the Journal’s published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Copyright for articles published in this Journal is retained by the Journal.
Main Article Content
Effect of Stake Length and NPK Fiertilizer on White Yam (Dioscorea rotundata) Minisett in Umudike, South-East, Nigeria
Abstract
Staking and soil fertility are critical factors that affect yam production in the humid forest zone of South-East, Nigeria; where high rainfalls and cloud cover are prevalent. Field experiments were conducted at Umudike, South-East, Nigeria in the 2016 and 2017 cropping seasons, to study the effects of stake length and NPK fertilizer on the minisett of white yam cultivar Yandu. The experiment was laid out as a 4× 5 factorial in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replicates. Treatments consist of four levels of stake length (0, 1, 2 and 3m) and five levels of NPK (15:15:15) fertilizer (0, 200, 400, 600 and 800kg/ha). Stake of 2 and 3m lengths had significantly longer vine lengths at 3 and 4 months after planting (MAP) and leaf area index at 3MAP than no staking. Averaged across the two cropping seasons, staking did not affect tuber yield, but the 2 or 3m stakes in 2016 had significant higher tuber yields than the yields obtained in 2017 regardless of stake length. NPK fertilizer application did not significantly influence vine length, leaf area index, and tuber yield, but the application of fertilizer at 200kg/ha increased the number of tubers per plant in 2017. The non-significant effects of staking and NPK fertilizer on tuber yield were ascribed to high rainfall that caused flooding and leaching of nutrients.
