EFFECTS OF HARVESTING FREQUENCY AND METHODS OF PROPAGATION

ABSTRACT

Harvesting Frequency and methods of propagation has shown to have a remarkable effect on the growth, reproductive and herbage yield of jute mallow (Corchorus olitorius). Hence this study was carried out to evaluate the effect of harvesting frequency and propagation methods on the growth and herbage yield of C. Olitorius. The Experiment was conducted at the Crop Science Research Farm in the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Benin, Benin city. Seeds and vegetative parts for the experiment were obtained from New Benin market. Poultry manure was procured from University of Benin farm project. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) in three replications consisting of three harvesting intervals (H1 – every week, H2 – every 2 weeks; H3 – every 3 weeks) and 3 planting method (M1 – propagation by seeds, M2 – propagation by stem and M3 – propagation by root. Data on vegetative characteristics (number of flowers, number of pods and pods weight) and herbage yield was taken. From the Result of the study, it was observed that the combination of H1M2 was noticed to be superior amongst all other remaining treatment combinations with respect to vegetative characters, while H2M3 had the highest reproductive characters, H1M1 had the highest herbage yield therefore from the economic point of view, this may be adopted for its commercial cultivation of C. olitorius.