Response of Water Management on Above and Below Ground Growth Pattern Distribution of Cashew Seedling (Anacardium occidentale L.) in the Nursery

Abstract

Water management is a very significant practice, as it influences the successful growth of many crops. In Nigeria, Cashew farmers use different cashew nuts and varying watering rate for their nursery operations. These necessitates this study, to enhanced cashew morphological growth and to checkmate water management. The experiment laid in 4 x 10 x 3 factorial design on a randomized complete block of three replications, examines medium, large cashew nut biotypes, and 200ml, 300ml watering rates applied fortnightly. Monthly harvest done from each treatment to monitor seedlings development. Data on vegetative characterices collected were used to calculate leafiness parameters, Leaf Area Ratio, Leaf Area, Specific Leaf Weight and Leaf weight ratio. At emergence the large biotype produced highest values (93.33%) of germination, while the least was from the medium nuts that received 200ml of water (66.7%). However, the medium cashews nut seedling greatly exploits the 200ml of water application for morphological growth. This does not exclude the fact that the results obtained from the cashew leafiness that 300ml of water was readily available for the seedling use at one month of harvest, but at later stages 2nd and 3th months of harvest, the medium biotype exhibited longer tap root system. The dynamic of the Fresh Shoot (14.72g), and Root (5.94g) weight results were positively influenced by the 200ml watering rate in large cashew seedlings, suggesting a potential adaptation for efficient water use. The large biotypes seedling having 300ml of water (3.0) application had much root hairs when compared to the medium (2.67). The study reveals that water management plays a crucial role in the growth pattern distribution of cashew seedlings. However, further investigations on the adverse effects of differing watering rate, and different cashew nut biotype in Nigeria is subject to validation and the findings shared to cashew nursery operators.