Effect of Different Water Application Schedules on the Growth and Yield of Loose leaf Lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. crispa) at Golinga Irrigation Scheme in the Tolon District of Northern Region, Ghana

To assess the effect of different water application schedules on the growth and yield of lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. crispa), a field experiment was carried out at Golinga Irrigation Site. Four treatments were laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design in four replications. The treatments were; TRT₁ (adlib application by farmers), TRT₂ (100% of the daily ET_c applied only in the morning at each growth stage), TRT₃ (100% of the daily ET_c applied only in the evening at each growth stage) and TRT₄ (100% ETc split: 50% of the daily ETc applied in the morning and the other 50% applied in the evening at each growth stage). The daily crop water requirement (ET_c) of the crop was calculated for the four stages of growth using the CROPWAT software bearing in mind the area of each bed (16m²). The data was analyzed using the Genstat Software. The results revealed that plants grown in the TRT₄ grew healthier and recorded the highest plant height (23.3cm), number of leaves (9), leaf spread (25.03cm), leaf area index (5.25), and fresh matter weight of leaf (43.0g), yield (28.3t/ha) and water productivity (7.2kg/m³). Plants grown in TRT₃ recorded the least values for plant height (19.8cm), number of leaves (7), leaf spread (20.9cm), leaf area index (4.1), fresh matter weight of leaf (30.7g), yield (13.9t/ha) and water productivity (3.5kg/m³). It is recommended that interested lettuce farmers could adopt TRT₄ water application schedule since it gave the highest values in all the parameters used for data collection.