Greener
Journal of Agricultural Sciences, Vol. 5 (5),
pp. 159-166, September
2015.

ISSN: 2276-7770  

Research Paper

Manuscript Number: 020315028

(DOI http://doi.org/10.15580/GJAS.2015.5.020315028)

 

Effect of Different Water Application Schedules
on the Growth and Yield of Loose leaf Lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. crispa)
at Golinga Irrigation Scheme in the Tolon District of Northern Region, Ghana

 

*Abdul–Ganiyu, S., Alhassan A.L. and Adongo, T.A.

 

Department of Agricultural
Mechanization and Irrigation Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, University for
Development Studies, Box TL 1882, Tamale, Ghana

Abstract

 

To assess the effect of
different water application schedules on the growth and yield of lettuce (Lactuca
sativa var. crispa), a field experiment was carried out at Golinga
Irrigation Site. Four treatments were laid out in a Randomized Complete Block
Design in four replications. The treatments were; TRT₁ (adlib
application by farmers), TRT₂ (100% of the daily ET_c applied
only in the morning at each growth stage), TRT₃ (100% of the
daily ET_c applied only in the evening at each growth stage) and
TRT₄ (100% ETc split: 50% of the daily ETc applied
in the morning and the other 50% applied in the evening at each growth stage).
The daily crop water requirement (ET_c) of the crop was calculated
for the four stages of growth using the CROPWAT software bearing in mind the
area of each bed (16m²). The data was analyzed using the Genstat
Software. The results revealed that plants grown in the TRT₄ grew
healthier and recorded the highest plant height (23.3cm), number of leaves (9),
leaf spread (25.03cm), leaf area index (5.25), and fresh matter weight of leaf
(43.0g), yield (28.3t/ha) and water productivity (7.2kg/m³). Plants
grown in TRT₃ recorded the least values for plant height
(19.8cm), number of leaves (7), leaf spread (20.9cm), leaf area index (4.1),
fresh matter weight of leaf (30.7g), yield (13.9t/ha) and water productivity
(3.5kg/m³). It is recommended that interested lettuce farmers could
adopt TRT₄ water application schedule since it gave the highest
values in all the parameters used for data collection.

 

Keywords: Different water application schedules,
yield of lettuce, crop evapotranspiration (ETc), crop water productivity

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