Response of Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench) and Weeds to Plant Spacing and Weeding Regime in a Humid Forest Agro-Ecology of South-Eastern Nigeria | Chapter 03 | Recent Advances in Biological Research Vol. 6
Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench) is a vegetable crop belonging to the family of Malvaceae. It is extensively grown in the tropic and sub- tropics but had its origin in Central Africa. One of the cultural practices that farmers used in controlling weeds in okra farm is spacing. It is a distance between one cultivated crop and another. The spacing between rows and along rows varies one type of crop to another. Field experiment was carried out in late 2015 and repeated in early 2016 cropping season at the Teaching and Research Farm of the University of Port Harcourt, Choba, Rivers State, Nigeria to determine the appropriate spacing and weeding regimes for okra production. Three spacing (60 cm x 15 cm, 60 cm x 20 cm and 60 cm x 30 cm) and three weeding regimes [no weeding, weekly weeding, and twice at 3 and 7 weeks after planting (WAP)] were used. The experimental design was a 3 x 3 factorial scheme laid out in a Randomised Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. ...