Performance evaluation of drip irrigated tomato and cabbage yields fertilized with different forms of chicken manure

Deteriorations in soil quality and unreliability of rain-fed farming have caused tremendous reductions in yields of horticultural crops especially in low to middle income countries. This can be solved through combined irrigation and fertilizer application using readily available resources in a process known as fertigation. Purpose: The study aimed at determining the most appropriate chicken manure-based drip fertigation regime for improved yield and quality of tomato and cabbage. Methodology: A three-replicate RCBD field experiment was set up at Makerere University Agricultural Research Institute, Kabanyolo characterized with sandy loam soils. Three treatments and two controls were set up and these included: 100% deep-litter manure (T1), 100% battery-cage manure (T2) and 50% battery-+ 50% deep-litter manure (T3), rainfed without fertigation (R) and water only (W). Liquid concentrations of the three manure treatments were extracted, characterized and applied to the crops. Weather and soil moisture conditions were monitored daily for irrigation scheduling. The fertigation schedule intended to provide the crops with net nutrient requirements. For each treatment data on crop growth parameters and yield were recorded. Proximate analysis for was done for crop physical-chemical quality parameters. A one-way ANOVA and Turkeys’ multiple comparison test conducted in R studio were used to test significance at 5% significance level. Results: Results showed that crop growth parameters generally improved with increase in amount of nutrient in the treatments. For tomato, the highest total yield of 18.35±0.004 kg/m2 was realized with T2 followed T1, T3, W and R with 14.11±0.005 kg/m2, 13.82±0.0005 kg/m2, 11.85±0.004 kg/m2 and 9.89±0.004 kg/m2 respectively. Cabbage registered highest yield of 8.81±0.001 kg/m2 with T2 followed by T3, T1, W and R with 6.35±0.001 kg/m2, 5.88±0.001 kg/m2 3.37±0.001 kg/m2 and 1.49±0.001 kg/m2 respectively. Conclusion: Where available, battery cage is the most suitable composition for increased yield of tomato and cabbage due to the highest nutrient concentration of NPK content.