ABSTRACT

A field experiment was conducted in the Western Farm of the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, to investigate the prospect of obtaining more than one stand from single seeds of fluted pumpkin (Telfairia occidentalis Hook f.) by using longitudinal seed fractions, exploiting polyembryony in the plant. The work was also aimed at comparing the agronomic performance of plants raised from whole seeds, half seeds, and quarter seeds, and so to find out if there could be any advantages in planting half, or quarter seeds, instead of whole seeds, in fluted pumpkin vegetable production. The trial was carried out on a randomized complete block design with three treatments, namely, whole seed, half seed, and quarter seed. There were five replications. The treatments were evaluated in respect of eight agronomic characteristics, namely, days to shoot emergence, establishment count, number of branches per plant, number of leaves per plant, length of shoot, stem girth, leaf area, and fresh vegetable weight at harvest. Whole seed was consistently better than both half seed and quarter seed in respect of all the parameters studied. Half seed was similarly better than quarter seed. There were no significant differences between whole seed and half seed treatments in respect of days to shoot emergence, establishment count (6 WAP), and length of shoot at harvest. There were, however, significant differences between the whole seed and half seed treatments on one hand, and the quarter seed treatment, on the other, in respect of all the eight characteristics studied. Whereas it was possible to obtain multiple stands from single seeds of fluted pumpkin through polyembryony, whole seeds gave a better crop than either half seed or quarter seed.