Growth and fruit yield of garden egg (Solanum gilo) as affected by different organic fertilizer types and rates

 Field trials were conducted during the growing seasons of 2016 and 2017 at the Experimental farm of National Horticultural Research Institute Mbato out-Station Okigwe Imo State, Nigeria to investigate the effect of different organic fertilizer types and rates on production of garden egg (Solanum gilo).The treatments were three organic fertilizer types (Poultry manure, Tithonia diversifolia leaves and Moringa oleifera leaves) and three application rates of 0 tonnes/ha (control), 10 tonnes/ha and 20 tonnes/ha. The experiment was laid out as a 3 x 3 factorial in Randomized Complete Block Design replicated four times. Each plot size measured 3 m x 3 m. Garden egg seedlings were transplanted at spacing of 1 m x 1 m apart. The manure types were incorporated into the soil two weeks before transplanting the garden egg seedlings. Data were collected on growth parameters such as plant height (cm), canopy spread (cm), number of leaves and stem girth (cm) at 4 and 8 weeks after transplanting (WAT). Also, number of fruits and fruit weight were determined. All data collected were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) and means were separated using fishers LSD at 5% probability level. The result of the trial shows that poultry manure gave the highest mean number of leaves value at both 4 and 8 WAT with values of 43 and 53 respectively. This was followed by Moringa oleifera with Tithonia diversifolia recoding the least number of leaves. However, application of 20 t/ha recorded the highest mean number of leaves values of 39 and 46 at 4 WAT and 8 WAT respectively. The interactions of the fertilizer types and rates on a number of leaves were significant.  A similar trend of results was also recorded on the effect of different fertilizer types and rates on the canopy spread of garden egg. Poultry manure showed highest mean values of 38 cm and 41 cm at 4 WAT and 8 WAT respectively, with 20 t/ha rate of application also recording highest means. The number of fruits was highest in plots treated with poultry manure with 97 followed by M.oleifera (96). There were significant interactions between the fertilizer types and rates on a number of fruits. Similarly, the fruit weight followed the same trend with number of fruits with poultry manure plots having highest fruit weight than M.oleifera and T. diversifolia plots. Highest mean fruit weight of 2.56 t/ha was recorded in poultry manure plot, followed by 2.49 t/ha in M.oleifera plots. In terms of soil amendment using these fertilizer types, poultry manure is recommended at 20 t/ha based on its outstanding performance.