Abstract
Water is an important factor in plant development. As important as water is, its excess can be dangerous and injurious to seedling; therefore the water requirement of seedlings at nursery level must be determined for effective performance of the plants. This study assessed the water requirement of Dennentia tripetala at nursery level. Sixty seedlings of relatively uniform size were selected and subjected to varying watering frequencies (once daily, twice daily and three times daily) to field capacity. The experimental design adopted for the study is complete randomized design with 20 single plant replicate per treatment. The growth parameters assessed were seedling girth, height and number of leaves for 16 weeks. Data generated was subjected to ANOVA and descriptive statistics. Watering frequency has no significant influence on growth parameters assessed at p ≤ 0.05. Seedlings watered once daily and three times daily had mean values 0.25±0.06 mm and 0.25±0.05 mm respectively. Highest mean height were observed in once daily watering (10.5±0.33 cm) while highest mean number of leaves was recorded in seedlings watered twice daily (6.7±0.17). The findings obtained from this study showed that growth of pepper fruit seedlings was not significantly influenced by different water frequencies used. More so, the seedlings needs moderate watering.
Key Words: Dennentia tripetala, Watering frequency, Once daily, Seedling height
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