Effect of Plant Spacing on Growth and Yield Performance of Soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill) in Wannune, Tarka Local Government Area, Benue State, Nigeria
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64137/3108088X/IJAES-V2I3P102Keywords:
Soybean, Plant Spacing, Growth, Yield, RCBD, Benue State, Wannune, TarkaAbstract
A field experiment was conducted during the 2025 cropping season at the Teaching and Research Farm of the Federal Polytechnic, Wannune, Benue State, Nigeria, to evaluate the effect of plant spacing on the growth and yield performance of soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill). The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) comprising four spacing treatments: 15 cm × 30 cm, 20 cm × 35 cm, 30 cm × 38 cm and 30 cm × 40 cm, replicated four times, resulting in 16 experimental plots. Data were collected from 80 randomly selected plants on plant height, leaf area, number of leaves, number of flowers, number of pods and number of seeds per plant. The data obtained were subjected to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and treatment means were separated using the Least Significant Difference (LSD) test at a 5% probability level. Results indicated that spacing had no significant effect on vegetative growth parameters during the early growth stages but significantly influenced growth and yield attributes at later stages. The widest spacing (30 cm × 40 cm) produced the highest plant height, leaf area and number of leaves, whereas the spacing of 30 cm × 38 cm recorded the highest number of flowers, pods and seeds per plant. The smallest values for all measured parameters were consistently obtained at the spacing of 15 cm × 30 cm. The study concluded that 30 cm × 38 cm spacing optimized plant population and resource utilization, achieving better yield performance under the agro-ecological conditions of Wannune, Benue State. In this sense, the 30 cm × 38 cm spacing is indicated for soybean crops in the area studied and similar areas.
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