Growth and Yield Responses of Curry Plant (Murraya koenigii) to Plant Row Spacing in an Utisol

Abstract

Curry plant (Murraya koenigii) is one of the most important vegetable spices crops use for food, spice, medicinal and industrial purposes in Nigeria. However, curry plant production in commercial scale in Nigeria is highly constrained by several factors: it is not cultivated in regular farming system mainly due to lack of planting materials and improper plant spacing of this crop among others. Therefore, field experiments were conducted to determine the effect of different levels of plant row spacing on growth and yield of Curry plant (Murraya koenigii) in Cross River University of Technology, Teaching and Research farm, Department of Agronomy, Obubra, Cross River state, Nigeria in 2017 and 2018 cropping seasons. The experimental design was a randomized complete block design. Treatments were nine plant row spacing (70 x 50 cm, 70 x 70 cm, 80 x 40 cm, 80x60 cm, 90 x 30 cm, 100 x 50 cm, 100 x 70 cm, 100 x100 cm and 100 x130 cm) inter and intra row respectively with four replications. Results showed that plant row spacing have significantly affect the growth and yield of Curry plant. Closer plant row spacing of 70 x 50 cm significantly promoted the tallest plant height and highest leaf area inde x values of curry plant. Fresh and dry leaf yield on per hectare basis were significantly higher in closer plant row spacing than wider row spacing. The highest fresh and dry leaves yield per hectare at 20 weeks after planting (WAP) of 0.9742t/ha and 0.9871t/ha were obtained in closer row spacing of 70 x 50 cm in 2017 and 2018 cropping seasons respectively . The number of leaves and branches per plant and their fresh leaf yield and dry matter of plant fractions were higher in wider plant row spacing plots. The wide plant row spacing of 100 x 130 cm produced the highest fresh leaf yield per plant of 88.54 g in 2017 and 83.46 g in 2018 cropping seasons. Based on this result farmers are advised to cultivate Curry plant (Murraya koenigii) using the plant row spacing of 70 x 50 or 80 x 60 cm for optimum growth and yield per hectare of the crop under the utisoil condition.