Effect of Planting Date and Plant Population Density on Grain Yield of Two Varieties of Mungbeans (Vigna Radiata (L.) Wilckzek)

Nawale, Edah Mwekwa (2001) Effect of Planting Date and Plant Population Density on Grain Yield of Two Varieties of Mungbeans (Vigna Radiata (L.) Wilckzek). Masters thesis, University of Zambia.

[img] PDF (Effect of Planting Date and Plant Population Density on Grain Yield of two Varieties of Mungbeans (Vigna Radiata (L.)Wilckzek))
EDAH MWEKWA NAWALE.PDF - Accepted Version
Restricted to Repository staff only

Download (1MB) | Request a copy

Abstract

The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of planting date and plant population density on grain yield of two varieties of mungbean (Vigna radiata (L) Wilczek). It was carried out at the Natural Resources Development College Farm (Lusaka) during the 1995/96 rainy season. A split-split plot design with whole units arranged as Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) was used. There were three treatments i.e. varieties, planting date and plant population density: two varieties, Kenya 1 and Accession 183407 were assigned to the main plots, three planting dates, 5/1/96, 19/1/96 and 2/2/96 were assigned to the sub plots; and four plant population densities 30cm x 10cm (666,667 plants per hectare), 60cm x 20cm (200,000 plants per hectare), 50cm x 10cm (400,000 plants per hectare), and 60cm x 10cm (333,333 plants per hectare) were assigned to the sub-sub plots. The main plot size was 281.35m2, the sub plot size was 80.49m2, while the subsub plot size was 9.60m2. The parameters measured included: days to 50% flowering, days to physiological maturity, plant height, number of pods per plant, pod length, number of seeds per pod, 100 seed weight, grain yield (kg/ha) and grain protein content(%). The study revealed that all the three factors, variety, planting date and plant population density contributed significantly to grain yield. Accession 183407 yielded more (526.4 kg/ha),was earlier in maturity (65 DAP), and had a higher protein content (21.8%) than K-1, which yielded 284.4 kg/ha, matured later (70 DAP) and had a lower protein content (18.4%). Second planting date (19/1/96) gave the highest yield (543.0 kg/hal across the varieties and plant population. The plant population of 666,667 plants per hectare gave the highest yield of 481.5 kg/ha across variety and planting date. The results lead to the following preliminary conclusions; the optimum planting date is mid-January (19/1/96), while the optimum plant population is 666,667 plants per hectare. However, the study needs to be repeated in order to arrive at more conclusive results.

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
Subjects: S Agriculture > S Agriculture (General)
S Agriculture > SB Plant culture
Divisions: Africana
Depositing User: Geoffrey Obatsa
Date Deposited: 18 Mar 2019 09:42
Last Modified: 18 Mar 2019 09:42
URI: http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/9061

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item