ABSTRACT

A study to determine the effect of soil temperature on the growth of okra in south eastern Nigeria was carried in at the western farm of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike Abia state (MOUAU), on sandy loam of western farm. Primary data was generated by using two centigrade/Celsius calibrated (i.e 0-100° Celsius) thermometer which was inserted into the soil near the okra plant at the depth of 0-10cm at 7am and 3pm daily over the period of 8 weeks (MOUAU). Data analysis was done using both descriptive statistics (jercentages, means, standard deviation etc. Findings indicate that the average temperature of the soil in the morning and afternoon for the North - South and morning and afternoon East-West were the same, In the afternoon the soil temperature of the okra plants for the locations (North-South and East-West) differed significantly ) this indicate that in afternoon periods the soil temperature of the North-South is higher than that of the East-West location the coefficient correlation result (24.3) shows that there are positive relationship in soil temperature of both location. The result reveals that that North-South and East-West planting location has a significant relationship in the morning 0.790, P<0.05 and in the afternoon (r=0.969, p> This indicates that, despite the fact that both locations are in the same place yet they still have the same initial soil temperature. In the same thing the analysis indicate that they have significant difference ). So the temperature difIrence of both locations shows that Okra can do well within the soil that has a measurement of soil temperature of about 25°C morning and afternoon 30°C