
EFFECT OF WEEDING FREQUENCY AND PLANT SPACING ON THE GROWTH AND YIELD OF TOMATO (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) IN IGBARIAM.
Author:
Ngonadi, E.N.
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
Weeds are one of the major problems in crop production systems around the world with devastating consequences. Thus, suitable plant spacing and effective weeding regime is very important in the management of the competition between tomato and weeds at critical growth stages of the crop. The experiment was conducted at Igbariam to determine the effect of weeding frequency and plant spacing on the growth and yield of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) in 2021 and 2022 cropping season. It was laid out in a 3×3 factorial experiment in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The selected weeding frequencies (zero weeding, weeding twice and weeding thrice) were the main factor while the three plant spacing (10x30cm, 20x30cm, and 30x30cm) consisted of the sub-factor. Data collected were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) and significant mean were separated using Fisher’s Least Significant Difference (LSD). The tallest Plant height (15.2 cm) and number of leaves (52cm) in 2022 cropping season were obtained in the plots of thrice weeding frequency while plant spacing of 20×30 cm had the best fresh weight effect (140 kg/ha) followed by 30×30 cm spacing (130kg/ha).
Pages | 37-40 |
Year | 2024 |
Issue | 1 |
Volume | 5 |