Influence of Watering Regime on Germination and Early Growth of African Yam Bean (Sphenostylis Stenocarpa) Under Nursery Condition in Anyigba

Abstract

A pot experiment was carried out at the nursery site of Faculty of Agriculture, Kogi State University Anyigba. The experiment was carried out to investigate the influence of watering regime on the seedlings of Sphenostylis stenocarpa (African yam bean). The experiment was set up using 5x5 factorial experiments in a completely randomized design (CRD). Five different watering regimes were used: Watering once daily, watering once in two days, watering once in four days, Watering once is six days and the control which was not watered. Twenty-five pots of the same size (8 litres) were used. The same quantity of water (150 ml) was applied on daily basis. The parameters measured were subjected to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).The means that were found to be statistically significant were separated by Fishers’ Least Significant Difference (LSD). The result showed that the best performance of Sphenostylis stenocarpa in terms of watering regime for the treatments which had significant difference are those ones watered once in two days (WOTDs) which gave the best performance of leaf diameter (4.60 cm) and  leaf length (10.68 cm) while the ones watered once in four days (WOFDs) were the least in performance giving leaf diameter (2.82 cm) and leaf length (6.96 cm). Therefore, the study recommends watering once in two days for the production of African yam bean in Anyigba.

Keywords: Watering regime, African yam bean, Germination growth, Anyigba.