Effects Of Plant Population And Harvesting Interval On The Growth And Leaf Yield Of Slenderleaf (Crotalaria Brevidens) In Kisii County, Kenya.

Slenderleaf (Crotalaria brevidens), also known as rattle pod, is a prominent species of Crotalaria used as a vegetable in Kenya. It is a highly nutritious leafy vegetable, good sources of provitamin A, Vitamin C, carotenoids, iron protein, and calcium. At an average of 3 tons per hectare production of slender leaf in Kenya is low compared to an average potential of 11 tons per hectare. Previous studies done evaluated the influence of nitrogenous and phosphoric nutrients on slenderleaf growth. Notwithstanding, but no work has been carried out in Kenya on the effect of plant population and fresh leaf harvesting interval on the yields of the slenderleaf. One of the major limitations of slender leaf production is the inadequate comprehensive technical production package. The aim of the study was to determine plant population and harvesting interval effects on the fresh leaf yield and grain seed yield of the slender leaf with the aim of increased growth and yield. The experiment carried out from July to December 2018 at Kisii Agricultural Training Centre (KATC) in Kisii County. An experiment of Randomized complete block design (RCBD) comprising of three repetitions was carried out with the following treatments; three different levels of plant population (S1 = 30 cm x 30 cm, S2 = 30 cm x 20 cm and S3 = 30 cm x 15 cm) and four levels of leaf harvesting intervals (H1 = 7, H2 = 28 days, H3 = 49 days and H4 at maturity). Data on plant height,  number of branches, fresh leaf weight, dry leaf weight, number of pods, and seed weight was collected and analyzed using the SPSS 21.0.Analysis of Variance(ANOVA) was done to identify the significant means between treatments and Post hoc test using Least Significant difference(LSD) was used to separate at P≤0.05. The results indicated that fresh leaf yield is depended upon the harvesting interval (intensity) and spacing (p