Effect of Plant Population Density and Methods of Weed Control on The Yield of Pepper (Capsicum annum L.) in Northeastern Nigeria

A.B Mustapha,T Felix,N.A Gworgwor,M.C Tashiwa

doi:10.4314/jasem.v25i2.20

Abstract

Field experiments were conducted at Yola and Garkida in Adamawa State, North-Eastern Nigeria during the 2017 rainy season. In the Yola location the experiment was conducted at the Teaching and Research Farm of the Department of Crop Production and Horticulture, Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola, and in Garkida it was conducted at Garkida village in Gombi Local Government Area of Adamawa State. The experiment was designed to study the effect of plant population density and methods of weed control on the yield of pepper (Capsicum annum L.). The treatments consist of three spacings, 25 x 30cm, 35 x 40cm and 45 x 50cm with four (4) different herbicides rates (No herbicide, pyrithiobac sodium 65.5kg a.i/ha, pendimethalin 1kg a.i/ha + pyrithiobac sodium 65.5kg a.i/ha and Haloxyfop 108g a.i/ha + hand hoe weeding. The experimental design was a split-plot design replicated three times. Spacing was assigned to the main plot while methods of weed control as subplots. Parameters measured were weed density, number of pepper fruits per plot, and fruit yield per hectare. All data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) appropriate to the split-plot design. The results of the experiment showed that herbicide pyrthiobac sodium 65.5kg a.i/ha recorded the highest number of fruit per plot of 72.4 while herbicide haloxyfop 108g a.i/ha followed by hand weeding recorded the least number of fruits of 50.1. The result of the experiment shows that there was a significant effect on spacing in both locations. Concerning yield per hectare spacing 25x30cm obtained the highest yield per hectare of 945kg in Garkida, while the least was from the Yola location which recorded 537kg. It was concluded that pepper yield depends on the proper spacing and proper use of herbicide which will suppress weed and increase yield significantly.  Keyword: Weed Density, Weed Control, Yield, Pepper

Highlights

Capsicum annum L. is one of the most important commercially grown vegetable crops in Nigeria
It was reported by Nasto et al, (2009) that increasing plant density resulted in greater yield/ha of pepper
Crop yields are generally very low due to untimely and ineffective weed control.Yield losses caused by weed as a result of the improper method of control by farmers has been tremendous as many farmers need to be enlightened on the danger of improper control of weed to minimize losses due to these problems caused by weed on pepper yield, farmers need to be sensitized and optimum weed control methods for optimum yield of pepper is necessary and is of interest to use effective management practices

Summary

Introduction

Capsicum annum L. (sweet pepper) is one of the most important commercially grown vegetable crops in Nigeria. Yield per unit area tends to increase as plant density increases to a point and tends to declines (Akintoye et al, 2009). It was reported by Nasto et al, (2009) that increasing plant density resulted in greater yield/ha of pepper. That is why this research is designed to address the problems mentioned above with the following objective to evaluate the effect of plant population density and methods of weed control on the yield of pepper (Capsicum annum L.) in North Eastern Nigeria

Methods

Results

Conclusion