EFFECTS OF SEEDING DENSITIES ON THE GROWTH CHARACTERISTICS OF SPURGE WEED (Euphorbia heterophylla (LINN.). IN MAKURDI, NIGERIA

A field experiment was conducted during the cropping season of 2023 at the College of Agronomy,Teaching and Research Farms, Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University Makurdi to evaluate the growth and development of spurge weed (Euphorbia heterophylla (Linn.) in the Southern th Guinea ecological zone of Nigeria. The spurge weed seeds were sown on the 10 of June, 2023. There were seven treatments: T1 = one spurge weed plant. T2 = two spurge weed plants. T3 = three spurge weed plants. T4 = four spurge weed plants. T5 = five spurge weed plants.T6 = six spurge weed plants T7 = seven spurge weed plants. The treatments were arranged in a Completely Randomised Design (CRD) and replicated three times. Data were collected spurge weed percentage emergence counts at one week after sowing (WAS), spurge weed plant height (cm) at 1- 11WAS, number of leaves per spurge weed plants at 1-11 WAS, days to 50 % flowering of spurge weeds, spurge weed plants height at flowering (cm); height at maturity, fresh shoot weight and dry shoot weight of spurge weed plants at harvest (g). Specific spurge weed plants were tagged for data collection. The spurge weed seeds used had 100 % emergence counts. All the various levels of spurge weed densities had similar flowering periods and shortest maturity periods of 30 days (4 WAS) and longest maturity periods of 49 days (7WAS) (life span/cycle) at plant height of between 13 -50 cm. The periodicity of the spurge plant in the crop field per season may be 3 to 4 times depending on the crop. Generally, the variations in the spurge weed density does not affect the number of leaves and plant height.