ABSTRACT
A field experiment was conducted during 2021/2022 dry cropping season of November at the Experimental Farm of the Department of Crop Science of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Benin, Benin City. The aim of the experiment was to determine the effect of different cutting height and different cutting frequency on the growth and yield of jute plant. The experiment was laid out as a randomised complete block design (RCBD) in three replications. The treatments were composed of three cutting height (H1- all cuttings at 10cm above the ground, H2 - all cuttings at 15cm above the ground, H3 - all cuttings at 20cm above the ground) and three different cutting frequency (F1 – every week cutting, F2 - every two weeks cutting, F3 - every three weeks cutting). The parameters measured were plant height, number of leaves, number of branches, stem diameter, number of flowers, harvest fresh weight per plant, dry matter and herbage yield (tons/ha). From the experiment, although the effect of cutting height and cutting frequency was not significant for plant height, number of leaves, number of branches stem diameter and number of flowers but it was significant for fresh weight, dry matter and yield/ha.
Plants cut successively at 10cm and 15cm above the ground had the highest herbage yield compared to cutting 20cm. Highest cumulative herbage yield was obtain at H2F3 (15cm above ground at 3 weeks cutting interval. Further studies should be done before useful recommendation could be made as this experiment is one year data.
