Evaluation of Six Lines of Okra Under Organic and Mineral Fertilization for Yield and Mucilaginous Properties in Anyigba Kogi State Nigeria

This study was conducted at the Prince Abubakar Audu University Research and Demonstration Farm, Anyigba during the 2023 cropping season.The experiment consists of six varieties of okra; Bagauda Spineless, Clemson Spineless, NH Okra 1, NHAe 47-4, LD 88 and Local; two NPK 20:10:10 fertilizer levels 0kg/ha and 100kg/ha; two poultry manure levels; 0kg/ha and 4t/ha respectively.These treatments were merged in a factorial combination and laid in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications.Bagauda Spineless had the highest germination count (87.5, 81.58 and 74.66 %) across all sampling stages.The variety produced the tallest plants (10.98, 18.4s5, 38.27, 50.39 cm), although did not differ significantly from those of Clemson Spineless.Clemson Spineless produced the highest number of leaves, thickest stems and largest leaf across all stage of sampling.For most of the growth characters, variety LD88 had the lowest result.Application of NPK fertilizer was not significant for some of the growth characters, however, tallest plant (32.56 cm), highest number of leaves (15.67) and largest leaf area (489.85 cm 2 ) were obtained when 150 kg/ha was applied at 9 WAS.For establishment count at 7 and 9WAS, control plots produced highest rates of germination (57.88 and 58.11%).Alternatively, Application of 4 t/ ha of poultry manure produced the best results for almost all the growth characters at different stages of sampling.Yield characters such as; Fruit diameters and number of seed/fruits produced the highest result (8.62 cm & 84.73), longest fruit (8.81 cm) was obtained with Clemson spineless, highest number of fruit/plant (2.44) was obtained from NHAe 47-4 while local variety produced the highest yield (45.11 kg/ha).Result obtained from fruit weight was statistically at par with those of Bagauda Spineless.Fruit diameter and number of seeds/fruits were highest with the application of 150 kg/ha of NPK, other yield parameters were optimum at 4 t/ha poultry manure except number of lobes and fruit length.Physiochemical properties of okra mucilage shows that mucilage of Bagauda Spineless, NH Okra-1, and NHAe 47-4 varieties were mostly yellow in colour while Clemson Spineless, LD88 and Local had grey colours.All varieties tested were alkaline to neutral in pH with values ranging from 6.77-7.13.Plots treated with no fertilizer produced grey mucilage while those treated with 4.0 t/ha of poultry manure produced mucilage with pH of 7.09.Viscosity was not significantly affected by variety, NPK and poultry manure.Interaction of V NPK and V PM on fruit weight/ha shows that Local variety had the highest response to the application of 150 kg NPK/ha and 4 t/ha respectively.