eprintid: 9909 rev_number: 13 eprint_status: archive userid: 1305 dir: disk0/00/00/99/09 datestamp: 2017-03-13 09:16:14 lastmod: 2017-03-13 09:16:14 status_changed: 2017-03-13 09:16:14 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Wafula, W N creators_name: Korir, N K creators_name: Siambi, M creators_name: Ojulong, H F creators_name: Gweyi-Onyango, J P icrisatcreators_name: Wafula, W N icrisatcreators_name: Siambi, M icrisatcreators_name: Ojulong, H F affiliation: Department of Agriculture Science and Technology, Kenyatta University (Nairobi) affiliation: ICRISAT (Nairobi) country: Kenya title: Agromorphological Performance and Character Association of Finger Millet under Varying Phosphorus Regimes ispublished: pub subjects: S1.5.2 subjects: S2020 divisions: CRPS5 full_text_status: public keywords: Finger Millet, Phosphorus, Soil note: Authors would like to thank all the staff of ICRISAT-Nairobi and KALRO-Kakamega especially Dr. Chrispus Oduori, Dr. Rachel Opole, Mr. Daniel Ajaku Otwani, Mr. Aggrey Omutsani and Mr. Edwin Machinji for their full support in this project. abstract: Finger millet production on more than 30% of world arable land is limited by P availability and more than 70% in the semi-arid and marginalized areas which covers most of the Sub-Saharan Africa. Phosphorus is one of the most important elements significantly affecting plant growth and metabolism. Three finger millet varieties (U-15, P-224 and Ikhulule) were evaluated under four P fertilizer levels (0, 12.5, 25 and 37.5 kg ha-1 P2O5) at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics Station, Alupe and the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization Station, Kakamega during the long and short rainy seasons of 2015 with the aim of determining their agromorphological response and trait associations. The on-station experiments were laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design in factorial arrangement with three replications. The statistical analysis of phosphorus levels and variety exhibited significant differences (P<0.05) to stand vigor, plant height, leaf blade length, number of leaves and lodging. The results revealed that application of 25 kg ha-1 P2O5 rate led to the tallest plants (65.0 cm), longest leaf blades (58.0 cm) and highest number of leaves per plant (16) at Alupe site while 37.5 kg ha-1 P2O5 rate eliciting the tallest plants (58.79 cm), longest leaf blades (51.44 cm) and highest number of leaves per plant (13) at Kakamega site. The highest rate led to the greatest vigor in both sites for both seasons while the control had the poorest vigor. Variety P-224 showed the highest lodging count with 32 out of 246 plants per experimental unit during the rainy season at Kakamega. The unit increase in grain yield was positively and significantly correlated with increased values of the harvest index (r=0.375), number of leaves (r=0.393) and plant height (r=0.431) but negatively and significantly correlated to the 1000-grain mass (r=-0.578) and lodging (r=-0.233). The best phosphorus treatment for most of the parameters was 25 kg ha-1 P2O5 at Alupe while maximum levels of the study parameters were realized under the 37.5 kg ha-1 P2O5 rate at Kakamega. date: 2017 date_type: published publication: Journal of Agricultural Studies volume: 5 number: 1 publisher: Macrothink Institute pagerange: 90-102 id_number: 10.5296/jas.v5i1.10809 refereed: TRUE issn: 2166-0379 official_url: https://doi.org/10.5296/jas.v5i1.10809 related_url_url: https://scholar.google.co.in/scholar?q=Agromorphological+Performance+and+Character+Association+of+Finger+Millet+under+Varying+Phosphorus+Regimes&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5 related_url_type: pub citation: Wafula, W N and Korir, N K and Siambi, M and Ojulong, H F and Gweyi-Onyango, J P (2017) Agromorphological Performance and Character Association of Finger Millet under Varying Phosphorus Regimes. Journal of Agricultural Studies, 5 (1). pp. 90-102. ISSN 2166-0379 document_url: http://oar.icrisat.org/9909/1/10809-39860-1-PB.pdf