ABSTRACT

Investigations were conducted to study the effects of stem portions and number of stakes per stand on crop establishment, growth and yield of cassava variety NR 8082 in a tropical ultisol of southeastern Nigeria during the 2016/17 and 2017/18 cropping seasons. In each year, the experiment was laid out as a 3 x 3 factorial, arranged in randomized complete block design with 3 replications. Treatments consisted of three stem portions of different physiological ages (top, middle and basal) and three numbers of stakes per stand (1, 2 and 3). The middle and basal stem portions significantly increased percent establishment, plant height, number of nodes per plant and leaf area index at 3 MAP but had no effect on stem girth, photosynthetic efficiency and number of storage roots per plant. The best stem portion for storage root yield was, however, the top portion which produced the highest yield on average. Number of stakes per stand did not significantly affect stem girth, number of nodes per plant and leaf area index but the use of 1 stake per stand increased number of storage roots per plant, root weight and storage root yield in 2017/18 cropping season. Averaged across two seasons, number of stakes per stand did not significantly influence storage root yield. Interactions between stem portion and number of stakes per stand did not significantly affect storage root yield of NR 8082 high cyanide cassava variety in both cropping seasons.