RESPONSE OF GRAIN AMARANTH (AMARANTHUS CRUENTUS L.), TOMETHOD AND RATE OF CATTLE KRAAL MANURE APPLICATIONAT KADAWA AND SAMARU IN NIGERIA

Field experiments were conducted between June and October2010 wet season at two different locations. The first was at the HorticulturalResearch Garden of the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), Samaru inthe Northern Guinea Savanna agro-ecological zone and the second experimentwas conducted at the Research Farm of the Irrigation Research Sub-Station(IRS), Kadawa in the Sudan Savanna agro-ecological zone also of the Institutefor Agricultural Research, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria to evaluatethe response of grain amaranth growth and green edible vegetable yieldcomponents to three methods of cattle kraal manure application (broadcasting,side banding and spot placement incorporated) and five rates of cattle kraalmanure application (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 t ha^-1), using the variety ‘Pure branch’.The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD)and replicated three times. Cattle kraal manure application rates significantly(p 0.05) increased growth of green edible vegetable yield characters of grainamaranth except stem girth at Samaru. Growth and green edible vegetable yieldcharacters were generally not influenced by methods of cattle kraal manureapplication except for plant height, number of leaves per plant at 12 WAT atSamaru, and plant fresh weight at 12 WAT at Kadawa and dry weight at 4 and12 WAT at Samaru and 12 WAT at Kadawa. Application of cattle kraal manureof 10 t ha^-1 to Amaranthus cruenthus gave the highest mean values which werecomparable to those of 15 and 20 t ha^-1 rates for all the characters measuredsuch as plant height, number of leaves, leaf area, fresh and dry weights.Thus, the finding suggests that 10 t ha^-1 should be recommended to farmers growing Amaranthus in the Northern Guinea and Sudan Savanna of Nigerianagro-ecologies.