Effect of age and time of transplanting suckers on the vegetative performance of pinapple in the basement complex soil of Cross River state

Abstract

An experiment was conducted from 2002 to 2003 at Iwuru, near Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria to estimate the influence of age and time of transplanting of pineapple suckers on vegetative development of the plants. Five different ages (4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 months) milked suckers were transplanted into the field on the first day of each month beginning from April to September 2002. The experiment lasted for 18 months after each transplanting. The result showed that time of transplanting and age of suckers at the time of transplanting significantly (P < 0.05) affected the growth and development of the suckers after 6 and 12 months. At one year after transplanting into the field, leaf area, leaf production interval and leaf extension rate were highest in suckers transplanted in September and this was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than those of other treatments. The 7-month and 8-month suckers transplanted had leaf area increases of 498.4 cm2 and 233.2 cm2, respectively, after 12 months, and these were significantly (P < 0.05) higher than those of the other treatments. The implication of these findings are discussed.