Performance of Cucumber (Cucumis Sativus l.) Under Poultry Manure and Four Weed Control Methods on an Alfisol in Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Most soils of southwestern Nigeria have low soil organic matter. They experience weed interference which competes with economic crops for available soil nutrients that results in crop losses, harvesting difficulties and accelerated insect pest attack. This study was carried out at the Teaching and Research Farm of the Agricultural Technology department of the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti in the year 2019. The experiment was laid out in a 2 × 4 factorial experiment in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). Poultry Manure were applied at two rates; 0 and 10.0 tons/ha. Weed control methods were post emergence herbicide at 4 weeks after planting (HB); Plant residue of sunflower mulch (PR); Manual weeding of Hoeing at 4 weeks after planting (MW) and Weedy Check (WC) as Control. These gave 8 treatment combinations and were replicated thrice. The growth parameters collected were vine length, number of leaves per plant and number of flowers per plant. Yield parameters collected were number of fruits, fruit length (cm) and fruits weight per plant. Weed characters observed were average weed density and weed fresh weight. Data collected was subjected to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The study concluded from the findings of this work that cucumber perform better with the application of 10 t ha-1 of poultry manure in sunflower residue soils, though there were significant differences in the growth and yield performances of cucumber with poultry manure at 0 and 10 t ha-1. All the weed control methods reduced weed infestations significantly, but Plant (Sunflower) residue recorded least weed density and weed dry weight, thus suggested for the control of weeds in cucumber fields and related horticultural ecologies.