_________________________________________________________ Journal of Experimental Biology and Agricultural Sciences KEYWORDS
Cassava
Polythene-covering
Above-ground tuber formation
Yield and yield components
Bintulu Malaysia
ABSTRACT
Present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of polythene-covering on activation of dormant auxiliary buds on the stem for lateral tuber formation and the resultant effect on total storage roots yield. Three time intervals i.e. 1 day after planting, 30 days after planting and 60 days after planting used as treatment, and uncovered stem used as control. Treatments were tested in randomized complete block design with three replications. Regardless of the variety, stem polythene-covering at day 1 after planting showed the highest effect with respect to storage roots production and yield components tested. However, the effect of stem polythene-covering at day 1 after planting in terms of dry mass partitioning to storage roots was the lowest across all the treatments (25.50 to 27.37% of the biomass) compared to that of stem covering at day 60 after planting (33.10 to 37.20%). This study opens new perspectives in cassava yield improvement which hitherto has not been exploited.
Abdullahi N
1, Bujang J S
2*, Ahmed O H
1and Zakaria M H
31
Department of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia Bintulu Sarawak Campus, 97008 Bintulu, Sarawak, Malaysia. 2
Department of Animal Science and Fishery, Universiti Putra Malaysia Bintulu Sarawak Campus, 97008 Bintulu, Sarawak, Malaysia. 3Department of Aquaculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Received – January 13, 2014; Revision – February 13, 2014, Accepted – February 15, 2014 Available Online - February 28, 2014
EFFECT OF POLYTHENE-COVERING ON ABOVE-GROUND TUBERIZATION
AND STORAGE ROOTS YIELD IN CASSAVA (
Manihot esculenta
Crantz)
E-mail: [email protected] (Bujang J S)
Peer review under responsibility of Journal of Experimental Biology and Agricultural Sciences.
* Corresponding author
Journal of Experimental Biology and Agricultural Sciences, February - 2014; Volume – 2(1)
Journal of Experimental Biology and Agricultural Sciences
http://www.jebas.org
ISSN No. 2320 – 8694
_________________________________________________________ 1 Introduction
Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a perennial starchy shrub of the family Euphorbiaceae mainly grown for its edible swollen roots. It is the fourth most important source of energy after rice (Oryza sativa), sugar cane (Saccharum officinarium) and maize (Zea mays) in the tropical regions (Akinwale et al., 2010). It provides carbohydrate to almost 750 million people throughout the tropics (Nassar & Ortiz, 2010). Annual production worldwide is estimated at more than 150 million tonnes, among this more than half of the total production (84 million) comes from Africa, followed by Asia (48 million), and Latin America (32 million) (Klanarong et al., 2001). The produced cassava is largely used for human consumption, livestock feeds, and raw materials for the starch industries (Lopez et al., 2005). Recently, this crop is assuming a new role in the emerging biofuel economy (Egesi et al., 2007). It
was reported that, cassava’s carbohydrate production per
hectare is greater than that of any other C3 plants (Ephraim et al., 2011). Cassava grows well in areas where most other crops fail. It is drought tolerant and can grow well on acidic soils and on soils with low fertility status (Chantaprasan & Wanapat, 2003).
Despite the successful breeding and released of higher yielding varieties, a world average yield of 10.20 t ha-1 was far below the potential yield of 40 t ha-1 roots dry matter of the crop under good management (Ntawuruhunga et al., 2006; Fermont et al., 2007). Considering the biology of cassava, special emphasize has been given to stimulate the activation of dormant auxiliary buds on the stem to produce lateral tubers. It is well established that increase in number of tuber formation is bound to affect positively the total storage roots yield (Kogram et al., 2002; Evangeline et al., 2002). Previous research has elucidated the role of polythene-mulching on the yield of cassava (Aniekwe et al., 2004), information on the possible influence of polythene-covering on above-ground lateral tuber formation and total yield of the crop are still in scarcity. Hence, the aim of this study was to establish the influence of polythene-covering on lateral tuber formation above-ground and total storage roots yield of cassava at three planting methods.
2 Materials and Methods
2.1 Experimental site and soil characteristics
This study was carried out at the experimental field of Universiti Putra Malaysia Bintulu Sarawak Campus (3010’N; 1130 2’E), Sarawak, Malaysia, Malaysia from June 2011 to November 2011. The soil of the experimental area was classified as Bekenu Series. Bekenu series is a member of the Bekenu family which is fine loamy, siliceous, isohypherthermic, red yellow to yellow tipik tualemkuts (Paramananthan, 2000). It is yellow to brownish in colour, deep and well drained. The rainfall data (mm), minimum and maximum temperatures (°C), relative humidity (%), and hours of sunshine (h) in Bintulu during the experimental period are shown in Table 1. Twenty soil samples were taken at 0 – 15 cm depth using an augur for physico-chemical analysis. The samples were air dried, sieved to pass a 2 mm sieve, and analyzed for texture (Tan, 2005), pH (Peech, 1965), total N (Tan, 2005), available P (Murphy & Riley, 1962), and exchangeable K (Tan, 2005).
2.2 Experimental setup
The experiment was carried out in a 3 × 3 × 4 factorial in randomized complete block design with three replications. The
planting methods evaluated were: (і) vertical planting forming
900 angle with ridges, (іі) inline planting forming 450 to 600
angle, and (ііі) horizontal planting forming 1800 with the
ridges. These planting methods were tested against three cassava varieties viz- Manihot Mardi 92, Sri Medan, and Sri Pontian in four above-ground stem polythene-covering types at; 0, 1, 30, and 60 days after planting. Stem cuttings with, 20 cm in length and approximately 6 cm in diameter selected from the tested varieties were planted in vertical, incline, and horizontal positions. For vertical and incline plantings, cuttings were planted 5 cm deep in the soil while cuttings horizontally planted were buried to a depth of 2 cm from the surface. This planting was followed by above-ground stem polythene-covering (about 5 cm from the ground surface) with a silver shine polythene sheets (0.03 mm × 1000 mm × 1000 mm) at 0, 1, 30, and 60 days after planting.
Table 1 Selected meteorological data at Bintulu during the experimental period.
Month Maximum Temp.
(°C)
Minimum Temp. (°C)
Rainfall (mm) Relative Humidity (%)
Sunshine hours (h)
June 31 24 282 63.7 6.3
July 31 24 239 64.1 7.0
August 31 24 287 62.4 6.1
September 31 24 312 64.2 5.2
October 31 24 371 66.5 5.2
November 30 24 409 67.2 6.2
December 29 24 455 68.5 4.4
To provide aeration for the growing roots enclosed inside the polythene, a metal nail (7.5 cm long with 4 mm diameter) was used to make hole in the polythene (20 cm apart), resulting in 25 holes in 1 m × 1 m polythene. The main size of the experimental area was 432 m2. A replicate size of 144 m2 comprising 10 ridges, each measuring 14.4 m long and at 1 m intervals was established. Planting distance of 1 m × 1 m was adopted. First weeding using a hoe was done at 1 month after planting while subsequent weeding were carried out by hand to minimize roots injury. A commercial fertilizer ‘Blue fertilizer’ N:P:K:Mg 12:12:17:2 at the rate of 400 kg ha-1 (Mbah et al., 2008) was applied in two equal split doses (one month and two months after planting). The sampling unit consisted of two central plants of each treatment of which two plants from each treatment were excluded in data collection (guard rows). Watering was done when necessary to complement rainfall in period of drought. No insecticide or herbicide was applied throughout the experimental period.
2.3 Collection of data and statistical analysis
Leaf area index were computed using LAI 2000 canopy analyser (LI-COR). Number of storage roots formation per plant was counted manually and storage roots yield (t ha-1) was recorded on fresh weight basis using a weighing balance. Data collected were analyzed and treatment effects were detected using factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA). Means found to
be significant were compared according to Tukey’s test at P≤0.05. Statistical analysis was carried out using the Statistical Analysis System version 9.2.
3 Results and Discussion
3.1Soil analysis
The results of the soil analysis before planting and after harvesting are shown in Table 2. The observed changed in soil acidification after harvesting cassava could be due to the application of nitrogenous fertilizer and subsequent leeching of ammonium in form of nitrate and crop removal of lime-like elements (e.g., Ca, Mg) at harvest (Chris, 2009). Available P
increased by 0.86%, whereas total exchangeable K decreased by 43.84%. The texture of the soils remained unchanged and it was classified as sandy loam. Howeler (1991) reported that for each tonne of cassava root dry matter produce, 4.5 kg of N, 0.83 kg of P and 6.6 kg of K are removed. Putthacharoen et al. (1998) reported that with an average root yield of 11 t ha-1, cassava removes lower N and P than those of other crops, and while K removal was similar to those of other crops and lower than that removed by pineapple.
3.2 Leaf area index
Figure 1 summarizes results of leaf area production for the three tested cassava varieties and reported a positive influenced by stem polythene-covering. The results showed that in Manihot Mardi 92, at vertical planting, stem polythene-covering had a greater significant effect on mean LAI as compared to those of uncovered experimental plots. The used of polythene-covering at 30 and 60 days after planting had higher LAI of 2.9 and 3.08 per plant, respectively than that of day 1 covering (1.79 per plant). However, in Sri Medan planted in an inclined position, early covering at 1 and 30 days after planting (3.72 and 3.73 per plant, respectively) shows the highest effect compared to those of 60 days covering (2.37 per plant) and control (2.84 per plant). Polythene-covering did not show any significant effect on LIA in Sri Pontian. Furthermore, stem polythene-covering had no significant effect in all varieties on LAI when cuttings were planted horizontally except for the use of covering at 30 days after planting in Sri Medan in which LAI depressed by 2.64 per plant as compared to that of uncovered experimental plots (2.85 per plant). However, without polythene covering and 60 days polythene-covering had the lowest in Sri Medan when cuttings were planted in an incline position. The observed increase in LAI with polythene-covering may be attributed to improved moisture conservation, better nutrient utilization, and improved root temperatures (Wien et al., 1993; Orozco et al., 1994). Gandhi & Bains (2006) observed in tomato that, mulches modify the microclimate by modifying soil temperature, soil moisture and evaporation and the modified microclimate affected the yield contributing characters of the plant.
Table 2 Physico-chemical characteristics of Bekenu series before planting and after harvesting cassava.
Physico-chemical characters Before planting After harvesting
Sand (%) 67.00 ± 0.87 68.50 ± 0.29
Silt (%) 16.00 ± 0.29 16.17 ± 0.72
Clay (%) 17.00 ± 0.29 15.33 ± 0.73
Soil texture Sandy loam Sandy loam
pH (H2O) 4.94 ± 0.12 5.13 ± 0.19
Total Nitrogen (N) (%) 0.19 ± 0.01 0.19 ± 0.02
Available Phosphorus (P) (mg L -1) 13.30 ± 0.06 14.16 ± 0.17
Exchangeable Potassium (K) (mg L -1)
1686.20 ± 70.69 947.0 ± 13.32
Mean ± S.E. of three replicates.
_________________________________________________________
Figure 1 Effects of stem polythene-covering on leaf area index per plant in three cassava varieties at three different planting methods. Bars denote the standard error (SE) of the means and n=6. Letters above columns within the same treatments which are different represent significant differences among the stem covering types at P ≤ 0.05 according to Tukey’s test. WPC = without stem
Polythene-covering, 1 DAP = stem Polythene-covering at day 1 after planting, 30 DAP = stem Polythene-covering at 30 days after planting, 60 DAP = stem Polythene-covering at 60 days after planting.
Figure 2 Effects of stem polythene-covering on number of above ground tuber formation per plant at four stem incision wounding types in three cassava varieties at three different planting methods. Bars denote the standard error (SE) of the means and n=6. Letters above columns within the same treatments which are different represent significant differences among the stem
Figure 3 Effects of stem polythene-covering on fresh total storage roots yield t ha-1 at four stem incision wounding types in three cassava varieties at three different planting methods. Bars denote the standard error (SE) of the means and n=6. Letters above columns within the same treatments which are different represent significant differences among the stem covering types at P ≤ 0.05 according to Tukey’s
test. WPC = without stem covering, 1 DAP = stem covering at day 1 after planting, 30 DAP = stem Polythene-covering at 30 days after planting, 60 DAP = stem Polythene-Polythene-covering at 60 days after planting.
3.3 Number of tuber above-ground
Stem polythene-covering had no significant effect on above-ground tuber formation, regardless of variety or planting method except for Sri Medan when cuttings were vertically planted in which, the effect of 1 DAP (1.67 tubers per plant) was better by 60% than that of 30 DAP (0.67 tubers per plant) while 60 DAP and WPC recorded no tuber formation (Figure 2). According to Jones (1991), increase in soil temperature and moisture content stimulate root growth which leads to greater plant growth.
3.4 Fresh total storage roots yield
Figure 3 shows the mean fresh total storage roots yield of the three tested varieties as influence by stem polythene-covering. In vertical planting, polythene-covering had significant effect on storage roots yield in Sri Pontian in which the effect of 1 DAP (yield of 29.28 t ha-1) was superior to those of 30 DAP (21.72 t ha-1) and 60 DAP (11.07 t ha-1). Under incline planting, Manihot Mardi 92 and Sri Pontian yield exhibited better performance with introduction of polythene-covering as shown in Figure 3. In Manihot Mardi 92 storage roots yield increased by 80.61, 100.21, and 54.23%, respectively in 1, 30, and 60 days of polythene-covering. Similarly, the mean storage roots yield of Sri Pontian with day 1 covering was 27.72 t ha-1, whereas those of the remaining covering treatments were significantly lower. Additionally, the introduction of polythene-covering at day 1 after planting recorded maximum yield of 23.92 t ha-1 in Sri Pontian at horizontal planting. In the present study, maximum storage roots increase was obtained with stem polythene-covering at day 1 after planting, and this effect decrease with subsequent delay in covering. In contrast, research by Lutaladio et al. (1992) on the effects of mulch on soil properties and on the performance of late season cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) on an ultisol in Southwestern Zaire found storage roots yield increased by 16.70, 28.10, and 57.70%, respectively in the first, second, and third years of mulching. The data revealed the possibility of storage roots
polythene-covering. In a related study, Okeke (1989) obtained 100% increase in root tuber yield of cassava as a resulting of mulching.
Conclusion
In summary, the present findings indicated the possibility of improving the storage roots yield in cassava through the use of polythene-covering, although its practicality is still not fully understood. The introduction of early covering (at day 1 after planting) exhibited more improvement in all of the studied characters, compared to the other covering dates. It is likely that polythene-covering alters soil microclimate in favor of early covering.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the support of the Agricultural Park of Universiti Putra Malaysia Bintulu Sarawak Campus, Sarawak, Malaysia.
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