PERFORMANCE OF SESAME VARIETIES (Sesamum indicum L) AS INFLUENCED BY NITROGEN FERTILIZER LEVEL AND INTRA ROW SPACING

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Date
2011-12
Authors
UMAR, Umar Abdullahi
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Abstract
A field trial was conducted to evaluate the performance of two sesame varieties (Sesamum indicum L) in response to levels of nitrogen fertilizer and intra row spacing at the research farm of Institute for Agricultural Research, Samaru in the Northern Guinea Savanna of Nigeria, during the wet seasons of 2009 and 2010. The treatments consisted of two sesame varieties (NCRIBen001M and NCRIBen002M), four nitrogen levels (20, 40, 60 and 80 kgN/ha) and three intra row spacing (5, 10 and 15cm). The treatments were arranged in a split plot design with the factorial combinations of nitrogen and variety assigned to the main plot and the intra row spacing placed at the sub plot. Increasing nitrogen level from 20 to 80kgN/ha resulted in significant increase in the number of leaves, plant height, number of secondary branches, total dry matter, number of capsules, weight of capsules and seed yield, but number of primary branches showed no significant response to nitrogen level above 60kgN/ha. The leaf area, leaf area index at 4WAS and crop growth rate at 6WAS showed no significant response to increased nitrogen. However, subsequent sampling periods produced significant response to increased nitrogen level up to 80kgN/ha. Narrow intra row spacing of 5cm significantly decreased the number of leaves, plant height, number of branches, total dry matter, leaf area, number of capsules, capsules yield and grain yield per plant, but showed increased leaf area index, crop growth rate and grain yield per hectare. The two varieties significantly differed in terms of plant height, total dry matter, leaf area, leaf area index, weight of capsules, crop growth rate and grain yield where NCRIBen001M significantly out performed NCRIBen002M, but they produced statistically the same number of leaves, number of branches and number of capsules per plant. A highly significant positive correlation was observed between grain yield per hectare and leaf area index and crop growth rate. The grain yield response to nitrogen application was linear ( r2= 0.2441). However, grain yield declined beyond 40kgN/ha. Application of 80kgN/ha and 5cm intra row spacing gave highest grain yield of 727.3 kg/ha and 841.9kg/ha respectively, while variety NCRIBen001M out performed NCRIBen002M in grain yield 711kg/ha and 666.3 kg/ha respectively. Sesame variety NCRIBen001M planted at 5cm intra row spacing with application of 80kgN/ha gave the highest grain yield compared to NCRIBen002M under the same conditions.
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRONOMY, FACULTY OF AGRICULTURE, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA December, 2011
Keywords
PERFORMANCE,, SESAME VARIETIES (Sesamum indicum L),, INFLUENCED,, NITROGEN FERTILIZER LEVEL,, INTRA ROW SPACING.
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