Effects of Different Levels of Urea Fertilizer on Growth Performance of Celosia Argentea in Ikorodu Agro Ecological Zone of Nigeria.

Nitrogen is necessary and important element for increasing the yield and quality of vegetables. This field study was conducted to determine the optimum level of urea fertilizer requirement for Celosia argentea cultivation in Ikorodu Agro ecological zone of humid rain forest South Western Nigeria. The experiment was conducted using Randomised Complete Block Design with five levels (0, 50, 100, 150 and 200kg/ha^-1) of urea fertilizer as treatments replicated three times. Morphological parameters such as number of leaves, leaf area, stems girth, plant height were collected at 2, 3, 4, and 5 weeks after transplanting (WAT) as well as shoot fresh weight was used to evaluate the growth and yield response of the plant the fertilizer effect. Analysed results obtained from the study clearly indicated that C. argentea responded positively and significantly to the varying levels of urea fertilizer application with the highest growth and yield recorded from plots treated with 200kg/ha-1 and the lowest growth responses from 0kg/ha^-1 urea application. Therefore, the optimum recommended rate of urea fertilizer application for maximum performance of C. argentea in this agro ecological zone is 200kg/ha^-1.