Yield Response of Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) to Weeding Regime and Plant Spacing

Abstract

Field experiments were conducted at the Plantation Section of the Faculty of Agriculture, KNUST. The experimental design was a 4 x 3 factorial, arranged in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The treatments comprised four levels of weeding (No-weeding or control (W0), weeding 2-3 weeks after planting (W1), weeding 3-4 weeks after planting (W2) and weed-free (W3) and three levels of plant spacing which included 20 cm x 20 cm, 30 cm x 30 cm and 30 cm x 45 cm. The results showed that total dry matter, pod and grain yields, number of pods per plant, and harvest index showed significant response (P<0.05) to weeding in both 2007 and 2008. The highest grain yields of 1034 kg ha^-1 and 3579 kg ha^-1 were produced by the weed-free treatment in 2007 and 2008, respectively. Results of the two seasons indicated that total dry matter, pod and grain yields and number of pods per plant were influenced by plant spacing. However, harvest index did not show any significant effect (P>0.05) with spacing in both seasons. The closest spacing (20cm x 20cm) recorded the highest total dry matter, pod and grain yields, and harvest index, with the highest grain yields being 969 kg ha^-1 and 3449 kg ha^-1 in 2007 and 2008. Farmers should adopt the weed-free and the closest spacing treatments since they produced the highest pod and grain yields in the experiment of the two seasons.

Keywords: Groundnut, yield, spacing, weeding