Effect of Legume Cover Crop on Sweet Orange (Citrus sinensis) Fruit Weight and Brix | Chapter 07 | New Perspectives in Agriculture and Crop Science Vol. 1
Recent reports show that orange yield and fruit quality is on the decline in Kenya’s coastal lowlands hence need for an efficient and sustainable production system. A field study was conducted in Vitengeni, Ganda and Matuga locations within the coastal lowland of Kenya from May 2012 to April 2015 to evaluate the effect of three legume cover crops on orange fruit weight and brix. The treatments included mucuna (Mucuna pruriens), dolichos (Lablab purpureus), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) cover crops and fallow of natural vegetation as the control. The experiment was laid out in a randomised complete block design (RCBD) and each treatment replicated four times within the four blocks. Data collected were orange fruit weight, orange fruit brix, weather, soil texture and composition. The data was subjected to the analysis of variance (ANOVA) using the procedures of R statistical analysis software version 3.3.2 (R Core team, 2015). Mean separation was done using the least significant differen...