Direct Sowing and Transplant Influenced Performance of Tiger Nut (Cyperus esculentus L.) Fertilized with NPK and Poultry Manure in Southern Nigeria

Tiger nut (Cyperus esculentus L.) cultivation is a possible and effective way to increase food production in the humid rainforest of Nigeria. However, the response of tiger nuts to sowing methods and fertilizer application are yet to be fully explored. The aim of this experiment is to determine the impact of direct sowing, transplant and fertilizer application on the vegetative and yield characters of tiger nut. The treatments had a combination of two sowing methods D (direct sowing) and T (transplant) and four fertilizer rates F1 (control), F2 (400 kg ha-1 NPK 15:15:15), F3 (poultry droppings 20 t ha -1), F4 (poultry manure 10 t ha -1 + 200 kg ha -1 NPK 15:15:15). The results showed that some of the agronomic traits of tiger nut in the direct sowing method were superior to the transplant. Plant height (98.35 cm), leaf area (67.95 cm 2), number of tubers plant -1 (27.12) and fresh tuber yield (4.29 t ha -1) increased significantly above the values obtained for the transplants. Additionally, plants that received fertilizer application demonstrated distinct advantages compared with the control. Therefore, for higher tuber yield sowing tiger nut (Cyperus esculentus L.) directly with any of the fertilizer rates used for this experiment can be recommended for tiger nut farmers in this locality.