- Title
- Amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus) growth and nutritional contents as affected by nitrogen and potassium fertiliser and plant density
- Creator
- Mamvura, Luckmore
- Subject
- Weeds -- Control -- Management
- Date
- 2019
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MSc
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/17249
- Identifier
- vital:40869
- Description
- The research was conducted to determine the response of amaranth growth and development to different rates of nitrogen and potassium fertilizer, the effect of plant density on herbage yield and weed management, effect of leaf age and stems on nutritional value of amaranths. The research was conducted at the University of Fort Hare Research Farm and University of Fort Hare glasshouse. For the fertilizer trial, a 4 x 3 factorial experiment: nitrogen at four levels (50kg/ha; 100kg/ha; 150kg/ha; 200kg/ha) and potassium at three levels (50kg/ha; 75kg/ha; 100kg/ha) was applied. Phosphorus was applied at 50kg/ha. The experiment was laid as randomised complete block design (RCBD) with 4 blocks (replication). The results showed that application of nitrogen and potassium treatments significantly (P < 0.05) increased plant height, stem girth and number of leaves per plant which in turn increased the crop economic leaf vegetative yield. The results also showed that at high rates of nitrogen and potassium, high vegetative yields were achieved in most cases. There was no interaction (P < 0.05) between nitrogen and potassium. Second experiment, the twelve treatments used in fertilizer trial were imposed under four different amaranth plant densities (1 200 000, 1400 000, 1600 000 and 1800 000 pph) at field level to find out growth and development performance of amaranth. In addition, at the same time investigating the effectiveness of plant density on weeds management using split plot design. The different planting densities were allocated to the main plots laid-out in RCBD. The results showed that there was no significant difference (P < 0.05) on the number of weeds under four plant densities. The results showed that different plant densities did not prevent weeds germination but the amaranths tolerate the negative effects of weeds. The nutritional analysis results showed that amaranth synthesised close to above recommended nutritional level despite different treatments applied. The third experiment: stems, lower and upper leaves were harvested separately and their nutritional composition was analysed. The results showed that the nutritional composition of stems, lower leaves and upper leaves were significantly different (P < 0.05) in most cases. Lower leaves dominated nutritional content for: crude protein crude fibre, carbohydrates, and calcium. The stems recorded least nutritional content on crude protein, crude fat, carbohydrates, calcium, potassium and sodium
- Format
- 119 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Science and Agriculture
- Language
- English
- Rights
- University of Fort Hare
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UFH Department of Agronomy
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details | SOURCE1 | Mamvura (Thesis Septembar 2019).pdf | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details |