Influence of genotype and poultry manure rate on phenology and fruit yield of yellow passion fruit

The importation of fruit juice concentrates negatively affects the Nigerian economy. Local production of passion fruit for concentrate is possible and cheaper. Production technologies suited to southeast Nigeria are lacking. Consequently, a field experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of two yellow passion fruit genotypes in 2014/2015 cropping seasons. They were grown under five rates of poultry manure (0, 10, 20, 30, 40 t ha(-1)) laid out as a 2×5 split plot experiment in randomized complete blocks replicated four times. Phenology and fruit yield parameters were collected. The result of the study revealed that the conventional genotype significantly (P<0.05) flowered 14 days earlier than the hybrid, ‘KPF-4’, but the fruit maturation of the hybrid was 13 days earlier than the conventional genotype. Application of poultry manure (PM) generally reduced the number of days to flowering but increased the number of days to fruit maturation, number of fruits, fresh fruit weight, fruit length and circumference. Number of fruits and fresh fruit weight were not significantly different (P>0.05) between the two genotypes, however, longer and wider fruits were associated with the hybrid. Across the manure treatments, the highest number of fruits picked and the corresponding fruit weight were obtained in August 2015 except in no-manure plots where the highest number of fruits picked and fruit weight had a peak in November 2015. Similarly, the heaviest and highest number of fruits was picked from the conventional genotype in August 2015 but September and November 2015, respectively, represented the peaks for highest number of fruits picked and fruit weight obtained from ‘KPF-4’. The study showed that the hybrid, ‘KPF-4’, bred in the highland of Nairobi, Kenya could adapt to Nsukka lowland of Nigeria. Furthermore, application of PM significantly and beneficially influenced the phenology and fruit yield of yellow passion fruit genotypes with the application of 20 t ha(-1) poultry manure enhancing highest yield. Evidences from data collected suggests that 20 t ha(-1) could be the most appropriate rate for optimum fruit yield of passion fruit in the study area.