| Summary, etc |
Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) locally known as "Pipino", belongs to the Cucumis genus in the Cucurbitaceae family and is an economically important fruit vegetable (Anonymous, 2012). 2,4 - Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4 - D) was the first synthetic herbicide developed and marketed worldwide in the first half of the 1940s (Peterson, McMaster, Riechers, Skelton, 2016) Depending on concentration, 2,4 - D can be used as growth promoting auxin or as an effective herbicide. The first herbicide reported to improve the growth and yield of crops at sub toxic level was 2,4 - D (Ries, 2010).<br/>Generally, the study was conducted to determine the effect of different rates of 2,4 - D on the growth and yield performance of cucumbers. Specifically, this study was conducted to evaluate the growth performance in terms of leaf area, number of branches, plant height and damaged leaves, to evaluate the yield performance in terms of the average number of pistillate and staminate flowers, length of fruits, number and weight of fruits, and total yield, and to determine the optimum level of 2,4 - D to be applied in cucumber. The experimental plants were randomly distributed into four treatments and replicated three times using Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). The different treatments were T1 - Control, T2 - 2.5ml / 4L of H2O, T3 - 5ml / 4L of H2O and T4 - 7ml / 4L of H2O.. All the data were further tested and analyzed using Statistical Tool for Agriculture Research (STAR) version 2.0.<br/>The study found that 2,4 - D had a significant impact on cucumber yield and growth. Treatment 3, which involved the application of 5ml / 4L of waters, produced the highest average mean in terms of the number of pistillate flowers, branches, fruit mass and overall production. However, a higher level of 2,4 - D caused various injuries and had inhibitory effects, resulting in the lowest average plant height, number of fruits and the highest average number of damaged leaves. The study concludes that the optimum level of 2,4 - D to be applied in cucumber is 5ml / 4L of water. |
