Productivity Enhancement of Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) through Optimized Use of Poultry Manure and Mineral Fertilizers under Greenhouse Cultivation

Cucumber, a widely cultivated vegetable, is mostly grown under greenhouse conditions. In recent years, the overuse of inorganic fertilizers for higher yield attainment adversely has affected human health and the environment. Therefore, a greenhouse experiment was designed to evaluate the effects of different nutrient sources (poultry manure (PM) and mineral fertilizer (MF)) on productivity-enhancing parameters of cucumber via univariate and multivariate analyses. Amounts of PM and MF (NPK15:15:15) were added to coco-peat per cubic meter by weight/volume (w/v) ratios as follows: T-1 (control), 60 kg PM; T-2, 30 kg PM + 3 kg MF; T-3, 30 kg PM + 5 kg MF, and T-4, 30 kg PM + 7 kg MF. The univariate analysis performed on the collected data illustrated the significant enhancement in growth and productivity for the integrated use of PM and MF. Multivariate analyses (correlation, clustering, and Principal Component Analysis) validated the results of univariate analysis by differentiating treatments into two groups. The three treatments obtained a distinguished group from T-1 (Control) and did not show significant differences among each other, with a maximum yield increase by T-2 (74.6%). According to these results, T-2 could improve cucumber productivity under greenhouse conditions. It can be taken as recommendations for better quality and yield enhancement in future improvement programs and cucumber-related farming communities.