Arab Society of Plant Protection

Advances in Crop Science and Technology

Effect of Plant Spacing on Seed Yield and Seed Quality of Cow Pea (Vigna unguiculataL.Walp.) at Dilla Sub-Station of the Southern Nation, Nationalities and Peoples? Regional State (SNNP)

Abstract

Author(s): Worku Bedeke* , Margia A, and Bangu B

The study was conducted in Dilla sub-station with objective of identifying optimum plant spacing for optimum seed yield and seed quality of forage cow pea. The study was based on a high yielding variety using the spacing of 10 cm, 20 cm, 30 cm and 40 cm between plants and between row spacing of 40 cm in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four replications. Agronomic information on yield attributes and yield were collected to evaluate treatment effects. Dry herbage yield was significantly (p<0.05) affected by plant spacing with the highest yield for plant spacing of 20 cm between plants. Plant spacing also had significant (P<0.05) effect on seed yield with the highest yield recorded for 30 cm spacing between plants. Based on the results of this study for increased herbage production a spacing 20 cm between plants is recomended while a spacing of 30 and 40 cm is recommended for seed production of cowpea at Dilla sub-stationand similar environment.