Effects of Sowing Date on Yield and Yield Parameters of Some Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) Cultivar Under Rainfed Condition in Ogbomoso, Nigeria

F G O Oni ,B A Lawal

doi:10.7176/jnsr/9-18-06

Abstract

The study examined the variation in number of flowers, number of nodules, number of pods and seed yield of some groundnut cultivar as affected by planting date in Ogbomoso, Oyo state, Nigeria under rainfed condition. This is necessary to determine when moisture availability will be at optimum starting from the onset of rainfall, to avert loss which could arise from improper timing of planting. Teaching and Research Farm of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Ogbomoso with average annual rainfall of 1000 mm and temperature ranging from 28 to 33 ºC was used for the experiment. A 4 by 4 factorial experiment with four varieties of groundnut (three improved varieties Samnut-10, Samnut-23, Samnut-22 and Kampala (local variety)) and four planting dates of a week interval (29th April, 6th May, 13th May and 20th May, 2016) were tried without chemical amendment. All the parameters evaluated were affected by the planting date. Samnut-23 and Samnut-10 planted on 29 th April produced the highest mean number of flowers (15.67) and number of nodules (116.00) respectively which were significantly higher than others. Cultivar type did not have significant influence (p≤0.05) on the growth parameters. However, number of pods and seed yield was influenced by the cultivar. The highest number of pods (103.00) from this study was produced by Samnut-23 planted on 29 th April. It was observed that the high number of pods produced by Samnut-23 did not translate to seed yield because Kampala produced the highest seed yield (73.51 g/plot) which was significantly higher than yield from other cultivars tried. Groundnut cultivars responded differently to planting date tried, with best planting period being early month of May. It was observed that all the cultivars produced their least seed yield when planted towards the end of month of May, therefore, should be discouraged for the tried cultivars at the trial location. KEYWORDS: Sowing date, Rainfed, Pod, Seed yield and Groundnut Production DOI : 10.7176/JNSR/9-18-06 Publication date :September 30 th 2019

Highlights

Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) plays a key role in the Nigerian Economy
The wind velocity was highest during the month of August Number of flowers produced by each variety was significantly influenced by planting date (Table 2)
Highest number of pods (116) produced Samnut-10 planted on 29th April was significantly higher than number of nodules produced by other varieties and Samnut-10 planted on other planting dates

Summary

Introduction

Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) plays a key role in the Nigerian Economy. It is the principal source of dietary protein, oil and vitamins such as thiamine, riboflavin and niacin. The average annual rainfall was 1000 mm and temperature ranges from 28 to 33oC. The factors are four varieties of groundnut (Samnut-10, Samnut-23 and Samnut-22 and Kampala) and four planting dates (29th April, 6th May, 13th May and 20th May, 2016).

Results

Conclusion