Watering Rates and Its Response to Cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) Genotypes Growth Development

Cocoa genotypes exhibiting different responses to water and watering rates to growth parameters necessitate this study. Seedlings were raised from cocoa hybrids genotypes (CRIN Tc1 – 8) and F3 Amazon. The seeds after 4 days of sowing were subjected to 3 watering rates of 50 ml, 100 ml and 150 ml applied once every two days and arranged in a CRD design between December 2020 - May 2021 at Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN) Ibadan Nursery. Data collected include the percentage of germination at 2-4 weeks after sowing (WAS), growth parameter (plant height, girth, leaf area, number of leaves), and destructive sampling (fresh and dry weight of shoot weight, root weight and Taproot length) which were statistically analyzed with SAS tools. The watering rates had no significant effect on cocoa seedling emergence date. Least plant heights were observed when 50ml watering rate was applied on CRINTc-1 (25.00cm), CRINTc-2 (26.53cm), CRINTc-4 (24.10 cm), CRINTc-6 (27.52cm) and CRINTc-8 (28.75cm) at 20WAS. Stem girth, number of leaves and fresh root weight were not significantly enhanced by the watering levels on the cocoa genotypes. The result also reveals that the dry shoot weight was greater than the dry root weight of their corresponding treatments. The 3 watering levels had no considerable effect on the emergence of the cocoa genotypes but influenced the morphological traits, fresh and dry weight of the shoot and root parameters of the cocoa genotypes. 100 ml watering rate applied on the cocoa genotypes performed more appreciably followed by 150 ml.