INTRODUCTION
Cucumbers are the fourth most widely `cultivated vegetable crop around the world after tomatoes, cabbages, and onions. It is grown for consumption because of its richness in nutrients.
Nutritionally, 100 grams of raw cucumber (with peel) contains 95% water, 16 calories and a supply of essential nutrients, notably vitamin K at 16% of the daily value. Cucumber may be eaten raw or can be prepared with other vegetables as salad. Increasing the use of cucumber can help reduce the risk of heart diseases as well as hydrate the body especially in the tropics. It can also be used to decrease the risk of diabetes and also for better bone health due to its high vitamin K levels.
Despite these benefits of cucumber, its’ production is still low due to nutrients constraints as well as the efficiency of use of the pplied fertilizers. The use of fertilizers is indispensable in alleviating nutrient constraints and is important in soil fertility management for improved crop production.
However, most fertilizers are not optimally utilized by crops. The declining trend of cucumber yields can however be reversed, and roduction tremendously increased if strategies to increase the efficiency of use of the applied fertilizers, albeit in small quantities, are mplemented. The use of bio-stimulants/growth activators has become one of the significant strategies presently being implemented to increase the physiological efficiency of plants to applied fertilizers. These biostimulants/growth activators, which are organic in nature, enhance plant growth and development when applied in small quantities (du Jardin, 2015). They enhance the plant’s physiological system by improving cell division and cell enlargement resulting in better chlorophyll content and increased yield. Further, they increase plant nutrient uptake leading to enhanced fruit set, fruit numbers, fruit quality and general crop performance. Although bio-stimulants has been found very useful in vegetable crops production in several Latin American countries, its use in Ghana is very limited.
The objective of the study was to determine the effects of different rates of MICROFERTILE biostimulant on the growth, yield and fruit shelf life of cucumber.
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