Effect of type and rates of Organo-based foliar fertilizer on chlorophyll and nutritional quality of Okra varieties in rainforest and rainforest/savanna transition agro-ecology of Nigeria

Abstract

Okra ( L.) is a commonly grown vegetable crop in the tropics, is constrained by depleting soil fertility as a result of heavy torrential rainfall. The Use of foliar
fertilizer as a supplement has been successfully reported in the temperate region. Tropics most of the time experience heavy down pour of rainfall and wash off plant nutrient, hence, the need to ameliorate the nutrient is inevitable through the use of foliar liquid fertilizer. Fieldexperiments were conducted at two different agro ecological zones: the Directorate ofUniversity Farms, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) and National Horticulture Research Institute (NIHORT), Ibadan to evaluate the response of two okra varieties to types and rates of organic-based foliar fertilizer application. The experiment was a
2 × 2 × 5 factorial combinations laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design in a splitsplit-plot arrangement, with three replicates at both locations. Factors were okra variety (LD88 and NHAE 47), the fertilizer types (D.I. Grow Green ® and D.I.Grow Red®) and four rate of foliar applications (0, 300, 600 and 900 ml/ha) while NPK 15:1 5:15 served as check. At 8 weeks after sowing (WAS) fruit samples from both locations were analyzed for proximate and chlorophyll contents. Data were subjected to analysis of variance and means were separated using LSD at 5% probability level. The D.I.Grow Red® at 3 00ml/ha gave the higher Ash
(8.23%), fat (2.54%,), moisture (14.65%), and carbohydrate (47.31%) at FUNAAB while 600 ml/ha produced significantly the higher ash, crude fibre, moisture and carbohydrate (9.37%, 15.94%, 9.13 %, and 52.02%), respectively in NIHORT. The study concluded that okra variety LD88 had superior growth performance. Application of D.I.Grow Red® at the rate of 300 ml/ha at FUNAAB and 600 ml/ha at NIHORT enhance the fruit nutritional quality of okra.