Abstract

Eifediyi E. K., S. U. Remison and V. B. Okaka

A field experiment was conducted at the Teaching and Research Farm of the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Nigeria Lat 6o 451 N and Long 6o 081 E. during the 2008 planting season to evaluate the effects of farmyard manure on the dry matter content of two cucumber varieties (Ashley and Palmetto).The farmyard manure was applied at the rates of 0, 5 and 10t/ha two weeks before the commencement of the experiment to the plots and worked into the soil using hoes The experiment was laid out in 2 x 3 factorial scheme fitted into a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replicates. Data were collected on vegetative traits – vine length, number of leaves, leaf area and number of branches; dry matter weight – leaf, stem, fruits and total dry matter and yield characters – fruit length and fruit girth, fruit number per plant, fruit weight per plant and yield per hectare. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out by using Genstat version 12 soft ware. The result of the study showed that increasing the farmyard rates led to an increase in the dry matter weights of the two varieties of cucumber. Farmyard manure at 10t/ha increased the dry matter content of cucumber. Palmetto was however more responsive to FYM application, with the rate of 10t/ha out yielding the control by 60% in contrast to Ashley, in which 10t/ha of FYM out yielded the control by only 30 %.