Growth and Yield Performances of Fluted Pumpkin (Telfairia Occidentalis Hook F.) under Organic and Inorganic Fertilizer on Ultisols of North Central Nigeria

The experiments were conducted during 2010 and 2011 rainy seasons at the research and teaching farm of the college of agriculture, Lafia, Nasarawa state, Nigeria. To determine the effect of urea fertilizer and poultry manure on the performances of fluted pumpkin (Telfairia occidentalis) in southern guinea savanna agroecological zone of north central Nigeria. The treatments consisted of three levels of urea fertilizer 0, 40 and 80 kg/ha and three levels of poultry manure: 0, 5 and 10t/ha factorially combined to form nine treatments which were laid in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) and replicated three times to form twenty seven plots. The result show that, application of urea and poultry manure rates did not significantly (p=0.05) affected vine length and number of leaves at 4 and 5weeks after germination in both cropping season. However, 6 weeks after germination application of urea and poultry manure produced a significant (p=0.05) effect on vine length and number of leaves in both season. 80kg/ha of urea produced the longest vine length of 74.80cm; 78.33cm in both years which are statistically comparable to 40kg/ha of urea but significantly higher than the control. 10t/ha of poultry manure generally recorded the best vine length (76.31cm and 79.23cm) in both years which is also comparable with application of 5t/ha of poultry manure; but significantly higher than the control(68.02cm and 68.57cm) in both years. Application of 80 kg/ha of urea fertilizer produced the highest number of leaves 27.46 in 2011cropping season, but was statistically the same with application of 40kg/ha of urea. 10t/ha of poultry manure also recorded the highest number of leaves 27.43 which is statistically the same with 5t/ha of poultry manure in both years. Urea fertilizer showed a significant (p=0.05) effect on the fresh biomass yield in 2010 cropping season. In 2011, urea fertilizer and poultry manure had a significant (p=0.05) response on fresh biomass yield of fluted pumpkin. Application of 80kg/ha of urea fertilizer produced the best biomass yield of 1134.52kg/ha, which is at par with application of 40kg/ha but higher than the control. Also, 10t/ha of poultry manure recorded a higher biomass yield of 1234.42kg/ha; which is also comparable with 5t/ha of poultry manure. Application of 40kg/ha of urea fertilizer and 5t/ha of poultry manure produced the best level of interaction. Therefore, this study recommend application of 40kg/ha of urea fertilizer and 5t/ha of poultry manure for environmentally friendly production of fluted pumpkin in North Central Nigeria.