Growth and Yield Response of Sunflower Helianthus annuus l to Spacing and Nitrogen Fertilization in Southern Guinea Savanna Ecological Zone of Nigeria

The experiments were conducted during 2016 and2017 rainy season to determine the optimal rate of nitrogen fertilizer and adequate plant spacing for production of sunflower in southern guinea savanna agroecology zone of Nigeria. The treatments consisted of planting spacing three 20cm, 30cm, 40 , four levels of nitrogen fertilizer 0, 80, 100 and 120 N Kgha 1 . A factorial experiment laid in a Randomized Complete Block Design RCBD and replicated three times. The results showed that planting at 40cm significantly produced plants with higher number of leaves the tallest plants 57.86 and 58.21cm and bigger plants with stem girth of 2.93cm and 2.94cm respectively. The shortest plants 51.82 and 52.34cm and the smallest stem girths 2.03 and 2.08cm were recorded on sunflower that were planted on 20cm plant spacing in both years of cropping. Application of 120 N kg ha 1 significantly produced sunflower plants with the highest number of leaves 18.76 and 18.83 , tallest sunflowers 60.45 and 61.23cm and biggest stem girth of 3.03 and 3.12cm in both 2016 and 2017 cropping seasons. These results above were at par with the other rates of nitrogen fertilizer application, but higher than the control plots. Sunflower planted at 40cm apart also significantly produced the heaviest head weight per plant of 149.40 and 152.30g seed weight per head 78.12 and 87. 66 g and seed yield of 512. 45 and 524.21kg ha 1.Application of 120 N kg ha 1 produced the highest seed yield of 561.59 and 549.42 kg ha 1 of sunflower in both cropping seasons. This result is statistically at par with application rate of 100 N kg ha 1 which produced 557.41 and 547.06 kg ha 1 seed yield of sunflower. This is also the same with application of rate of 80N kg ha 1 which produced 528.87 and 525. 10kg ha 1 seed yield of sunflower in both cropping seasons respectively. The control plots produced the lowest seed yield 312.89 and 322.23 kg ha 1 in both years of cropping. It can be concluded that 80 N kg ha 1 is the optimal nitrogen requirement and planting at 75cm X 40cm apart is adequate plant spacing for production of sunflower in southern guinea savanna agroecology zone of Nigeria. Ndor, E | Anzaku, H | Nasir, U. I "Growth and Yield Response of Sunflower (Helianthus annuus l) to Spacing and Nitrogen Fertilization in Southern Guinea Savanna Ecological Zone of Nigeria" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-3 | Issue-5 , August 2019, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd27986.pdfPaper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/engineering/agricultural-engineering/27986/growth-and-yield-response-of-sunflower-helianthus-annuus-l-to-spacing-and-nitrogen-fertilization-in-southern-guinea-savanna-ecological-zone-of-nigeria/ndor-e