ABSTRACT
The effect of digestate admixed with topsoil on the growth and yield of tiger nut (Cyperus esculentus L,) was evaluated between December 2023 and April 2024 at the Experimental Farm of the Department of Crop Science Screen House, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. The study involved four treatments (0, 5, 10, 15kgN digestate) per 10 kg of topsoil laid out in a completely randomized design and replicated three times. Data were collected on some vegetative characters (plant height, stem girth and number of leaves) and at harvest on some reproductive characters (number of nuts per plants, nut size (cm), nut fresh weight (g), nut yield (t/ha). Results showed that the application rate of 5 and 10kgN digestate ha-1 had the highest plant height at harvest (88.0 and 80.3cm respectively), stem girth at harvest (5.0 and 5.0 mm respectively), highest number of leaves at harvest (12.0 and 13.0 respectively). The application rate 5 and 10kgN digestate ha-1 produced the highest yield with no significant difference, they produced the highest number of nuts per plants (5.7 and 5.4 respectively), highest fresh weight of nuts (30.7 and 34.8g respectively) and the highest nut yield (0.61 and 0.68t/ha respectively), highest nut size (7.5 and 8.9cm respectively). Therefore, for higher nut yield, farmers should adopt application rate of 5 and 10kgNha-1 of digestate admixed with topsoil per 10kg of soil.
