MORPHOPHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS AND PRODUCTION OF COWPEA DUE TO VARIATION IN THE NUMBER OF SEEDS AND FERTILIZATION COMBINATION

Abstract

Cowpea, known as a food crop, demonstrates thrive on land with low soil fertility. Albina IPB is a new superior variety of cowpea with a potential yield of 3.88-4.69 t ha-1. This study aims to evaluate the productivity of Albina based on differences in the number of seeds and fertilization. Minus one test method was applied to find out which nutrients among N, P, and K had the most influence on the growth and production of cowpea. The results showed that one seed per planting hole gave the best results which were significantly different from others, while the combination of three seeds per planting hole with minus K resulted in the lowest growth in general. Nevertheless, anthocyanin in the combination of three seeds per planting hole with minus K produced the highest value, significantly different from the other treatments. These results indicate that element K is a limiting element in the growth of cowpea. However, neither the fertilization treatment nor the number of seeds was significantly different in the yield and yield components. Plant productivity ranged from 0.82-1.42 t ha-1 for all treatments.