Effect of Nitrogen Fertilizer and Inter Row Spacing on Herbage Yield and Some Yield Components (Number of Leaves and Number of Tillers per Plant) of Rhodes Grass (Chloris gayana Tan) in the Dry Sub Humid Zone of Sokoto Nigeria

A field experiment was conducted during the 2016 and 2017 rainy seasons at Centre for Agriculture and Pastoral Research (CAPAR) of the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, Nigeria to study the effect of nitrogen fertilizer and inter-row spacing on herbage yield and some yield parameters of Rhodes grass. A factorial combination of five fertilizer levels (0, 100, 120, 140 and 160 kgNha-1) and three inter row spacing (30, 50 and 70 cm) were used, making fifteen treatments combinations, which were laid out in a RCBD replicated four times. Determination of herbage dry matter yield at the end of 12 weeks post planting was carried out using a 0.25 m2 (0.5 m x 0.5 m) area metallic frame (Quadrat). The herbage was harvested at 5 cm above ground level using hand Sickle from the four plots for each treatment. The samples collected ware oven dried for the determination of dry matter yield, while determination of number of leaves and number of tillers per plant was done by counting the numbers of individual leave and tillers of each of the representative plant sample. The result revealed that, Application of 160 KgNha-1 generally produced higher (P < 0.05) dry matter yield, number of leaves and number of tillers compared to the rest of the treatment, There was no significant (P > 0.05) effect of inter row spacing in both 2016, 2017 and the years combined on herbage dry matter yield, however significant (P < 0.05) effect of spacing was observed in 2016, 2017 and the years combine on the numbers of leaves and numbers of tiller. Inter-row spacing of 70cm showed superiority among the treatments in the herbage yield compositions investigated compared to 50 and 30cm spacings.