Evaluation of the effects of rubber factory effluent and NPK fertilizer on the performance of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.).

Abstract

Combining inorganic and organic fertilizer is expected to give higher and sustainable crop yields than the sole application of inorganic or organic fertilizer. Nutrients in inorganic fertilizers are readily available for uptake upon application while the organic form of nutrient is slowly available; hence combining the attributes of both types of manure will be beneficial to crops thereby increasing their growth and yield potentials. A field experiment was conducted at the Rubber Research Institute of Nigeria (RRIN), lyanomo Benin City, Latitude 6° 00' and 7' 00' North and Longitude 5" 00' and 6º 00' East in a humid forest zone of Nigeria during the wet season of 2011. The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of rubber effluent and NPK 15:15:15 on the growth and yield potentials of cucumber (var. Poinsett). Five levels of rubber effluent and three levels of fertilizer NPK 15:15:15 (control, 50,000, 100,000, 150,000, 200,000L/ha and 0, 150 and 300kg/ha) respectively were randomly allocated to plots using a randomized complete block design (RCBD) in a factorial scheme with three replicates. Data were collected on growth parameters - vine length, number of branches and number of leaves and yield characters - fruit length and girth, number of fruits per plant, weight of fruits per plant and total yield per hectare. Analyses of variance (ANOVA) for all measurements were performed using Genstat Discovery 4 Edition software package. The result of the experiment indicated significant differences (P<0.05) amongst the treated plots and the control. Combining NPK at 150 and 300kgha' and rubber effluent at 200,000L/ha gave the highest vegetative traits- vine length, number of branches and number of leaves and yield characters - number of fruits per plant, weight of fruits per plant, fruit length and fruit girth and total yield per hectare of cucumber. The combined application of rubber effluent at 150,000ha and fertilizer at 300kgha ' out yielded the control by 76 percent.