Effect of Inter and Intra-Row Spacing on Yield and Yield Components of Lettuce (Lactuca Sativa) in South East Tigray, Ethiopia

Beyenesh Zemichael*, Mereseit Hadush and Niguse Abebe

Received: October 31, 2017;   Published: November 10, 2017

DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2017.01.000516

Full Text PDF

To view the Full Article   Peer-reviewed Article PDF

Abstract

Development of recommendation on appropriate plant spacing is one of the important agronomic practices to increase the productivity of lettuce. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted to assess the response of Tesfa Mekelle lettuce variety to different inter and intra row spacing in 2014 cropping season at Illala. The experiment was arranged in a factorial combination of three levels of intra row spacing (30, 40 and 50cm) and two levels of inter row spacing (60 and 70 cm) in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The result revealed that plant spacing showed significant effects on leaf number per plant, plant width and fresh biomass yield per hectare. Conversely, the treatment combinations did not significantly affect plant height and leaf length. The highest number of leaves per plant was recorded at 50 x 60 cm intra and inters row spacing and the lowest was obtained from 30 x 60cm intra and inters row spacing respectively. The highest biomass yield (53.6 ton ha^-1) was recorded at 40 x 60cm and no further increases was observed when intra spacing increase to 50 cm nor inter row spacing increase up to70cm. The lowest was recorded in spacing 50×70cm. Therefore, it is vital to demonstrate the best treatment (40x60cm) under farmer’s conditions.

Key words: Lactuca Sativa; Inter and intra spacing; Biomass yield

Abstract| Introduction| Materials and Methods| Result and Discussions| Conclusion| References|