EFFECT OF COMPLEMNTARY FERTILIZERS ON YIELD AND STORABILITY OF PUMPKIN ACCESSIONS IN NSUKKA

Abstract

An experiment was conducted during 2025 cropping season at the Department of Crop Science Teaching and Research farm, University of Nigeria, Nsukka to determine the effect of complementary fertilizers on the yield and storability of pumpkin accessions. Treatments comprised of nine complementary fertilizers on the main plots and single row plots of five plants per accession of pumpkin on the sub-plots. The results revealed that Ugbogiri accession from Enugu State produced significantly (p<0.05) highest number of fruits (3.72), highest number of seeds (117.10), heaviest seeds (6.51 kg), total seed yield (15.40 t ha-1) and fruit yield of 19.33 t ha-1. The heaviest fruits (4.84 kg) and longest fruits (28.06 cm) were recorded at Janadu accession. Percentage weight loss on pumpkin accessions at 12th weeks after storage were non-significant from the F-test. The yield and storability was significantly (p<0.05) affected by complementary fertilizers except on fruit yield and initial fruit thickness. Plants subjected to 5 t/ha PGM augmented with NPK 15:15:15 (100 kg/ha) produced highest number of fruits/plant (3.88) and fruit yield of 19.88 t/ha. Plots with janadu accession treated with NPK 15:15:15 (200 kg/ha) gave higher seed yield. The application of complementary fertilizers should be adopted since it has huge potential to improve yield. For extended availability of fresh pumpkin fruits, esi 1, esi 2, ugbogiri and ugboma accessions cultivated with the application of complementary fertilizers should be encouraged since it has longer storage life than janadu accession from Cross-River State