Asian Journal of Research and Review in Agriculture

Ensuring agricultural sustainability has become a major global challenge due to rising food demand, environmental degradation, and the adverse impacts of costly synthetic agrochemicals. Organic foliar feeding, an important component of organic agriculture, has shown promising results in boosting food security while minimizing the negative impacts of synthetic fertilizers on human health and the environment. The study, therefore, aimed at evaluating the growth and yield response of eggplant (Solanum melongena) to Sure-grow liquid organic foliar fertilizer in Owerri eastern part of Nigeria. This study was conducted during the 2023 cropping season at the Teaching and Research Farm of the Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine Imo State University Owerri. The experimental design was a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. The treatments were different application rates of Sure-grow liquid organic fertilizer (0 {control}, 200, 400 and 600ml) each in 20L of water. These were randomly applied to the plots of the garden eggplant two weeks after transplanting. Evaluation of growth and yield components were done at different growth stages and at harvest. Data collected were analyzed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and means separation was done using Duncan New Multiple Range Test (DNMRT) at 5% level of probability. Result indicated that among the treatment rates, 600ml of Sure-grow produced the highest values for the parameters such as plant height (83.06cm) and number of leaves (50.67) at 4, 6, and 8WAT, with exception of 400ml showed statistically similar values. However, the former showed statistical similarities with other treatment rates on the Number of branches and Plant girth especially at later stage of the crop development. The second highest values were also recorded for 400ml on the above parameters. Meanwhile, yield components were also impacted as plots that received the treatments got higher values than the control. The 600mls treatment significantly (p<0.05) increasing yield parameters of fresh fruit weight of (5196.0 kg/plot), (397.48) fruits/plot (451.82kg/ha). 400mls obtained significant (p<0.05) higher values than 200mls on fresh weight (4400g) and yield/ha (382.6kg), but showed statistical similarities with 600mls in the yield components. Overall, the analysis indicated that the 600 ml application outperformed the other treatment levels in nearly all the evaluated parameters.