HYDROPONICS PRODUCTION OF CUCUMBER AS SOIL FARMING ALTERNATIVE IN NIGERIA
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
The constant farmers-herders clash has predisposed farmers to insecurity in Nigeria thereby making farming in open field difficult. The hydroponics system has gained popularity in the cultivation of vegetable crops around the World. However, in Nigeria, there is dearth of information on hydroponics usage as an alternative to soil farming. Hence, the need to investigate the suitability of producing cucumber in Nigeria using the hydroponics system compared to soil. Seeds of three cucumber varieties were grown in cocopeat substrate and topsoil in a 3 (genotypes) by 2 (substrate) factorial experiment laid in a completely randomized design with 3 replicates. Each plant was fertigated with 100 ml of liquefied poultry manure weekly and was watered every 3 days till harvest. Data were taken on the number of leaves, plant height, leaf area, days to flowering and fruiting, number of fruits and average fruit weight. Data collected were analyzed using ANOVA and differences in the treatment means were separated using least significant differences at 5% level of significance. Result obtained showed significant differences among genotypes in the growth and yield parameters with Poinset having the highest number of fruits (6.88±0.57) and fruit weight (275.00±17.03), while the substrate effect was not significant.
JEL Classification Codes: Q15.
Downloads
Metrics
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
Colle, M., Weng, Y., Kang, Y., Ophir, R., Sherman, A., & Grumet, R. (2017). Variation in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) fruit size and shape results from multiple components acting pre-anthesis and post-pollination. Planta, 246.
Ghazvini, R., Payvast, G. F., & Azarian, H. (2007). Efect of clinoptiloliticzeolite and perlite mixtures on the yield and quality of strawberry in soil-less culture. Int J Agric Biol, 9, 885–888
Lawal, M. (2014). Shifting Cultivation Farming and Its Impacts on Wildlife Species in Oyan Community, Odo-Otin, Osun State, Nigeria.
Paul, C. (2000). Health and hydroponic. Practical Hydroponics & Greenhouses, 53, 28–37.
Pal, S., Sharma, H. R., & Yadav, N. (2017). Evaluation of cucumber genotypes for yield and quality traits. Journal of Hill Agriculture, 8(2), 144-150.
Sarwar, M., Anjum, S., Khan, M. A., Haider, M. S., Ali, S., & Naseem, M. K. (2018). Assessment of sustainable and biodegradable agricultural substrates for eminence production of cucumber for kitchen gardening. International Journal of Recycling of Organic Waste in Agriculture, 7(4), 365-374
Savvas, D., & Lenz, F. (2000). Effects of NaCl or nutrient-induced salinity on growth, yield and composition of eggplants grown in rockwool. Sci. Hort., 84, 37-47.
Tanksley, S. D. (2004). The genetic, developmental, and molecular bases of fruit size and shape variation in tomato. Plant Cell, 16, 181-189.
Verdonck, O., Penninck, R., & De Boodt, M. (1983). The physical properties of horticultural substrates. Acta Hort. 150, 155-160.
Weng, Y., Colle, M., Wang, Y., Yang, I., Rubenstein, M., Sherman, A., Ophir, R., & Grumet, R. (2015). QTL mapping in multiple populations and development stages reveals dynamic quantitative trait loci for fruit size in cucumbers of different market classes. Theor. Appl Genet 128, 1747-1763.