Influence Of Laterite Soil On The Growth And Yield Of Cowpea (Vigna Unguiculata L.) Accessions In Nasarawa State

This study was conducted to determine the influence of laterite soil on the growth and yield of cowpea accessions. Five different cowpea accessions (TVU-1335, TVU-11530, TVU-997, TVU-10778 and TVU-4593) were sourced from International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, Oyo State. Three different layer of Laterite soil, Organic layer (LI), Upper mineral horizon (L2), Leached horizon (L3) and Loamy soil (L0) as control were collected from Akurba, Lafia, Nasarawa State. These treatments were measured into 60 bags of 20kg each and were laid out in a (RCBD) with three replications in the Department of (PSB), Fulafia. Seed rate was 3 seeds per planting bag at a depth of 2.5 to 3cm. Data were collected for some growth and yield parameters such as Number of days to seed germination (NDSG), % Seeds Germination (%SG), Plant height at maturity (PHATM), Number of days to flower formation (NDFF), Number of days to pod formation (NDPF), Number of days to pod maturity (NDPM), Number of pods per plant (NPP), Number of seeds per pod (NSPP), Number of leaves per plant (NOLPP), Leaf area per plant (LAPP) and Stem girth (S.G). TVU-1335 (L3) was observed to have the highest (NDSG) of 6.13. %SG was observed highest in (L1) with 97.78%, PHATM was highest at (L0) with 18.64cm, NDFF was observed highest at (L2) with 48.47DAP, NDPF was registered highest at (L2) with 51.80DAP, NDPM was observed highest at (L2) with 61.93DAP, NPP was observed highest at (L0) with 34.12DAP, LAPP was also observed highest at (L1) with 63.17DAP, NOLPP was noticed to be highest in (L3) with 55.87DAP, at (L2) NSPP was higher with 12.42 and S.G was observed highest at (L0) with 3.02cm. Data collected were subjected to a two-way (ANOVA) and LSD was used to separate mean difference at p ≤ 0.05 level of significant. The result indicates that, none of the cowpea accession is significantly superior in terms of growth and yield performance on lateritic soils experiment.