Early planting or dry plant (one week before) is recommended for the following reasons:

• Seed germination potential is at its highest when the balance between well aerated and warm soil is achieved at the start of the season. Later into the wet season, the soil becomes cooler and aeration is reduced because of the increased moisture content.
• Weeds, pests and diseases become more prevalent as the wet season progresses.

• Depends on system of cultivation
• Conventionally, ridges are spaced at 90cm and plant stations are also at 90cm apart with 3 seeds per station. However, this method has proved to be ineffective resulting in low crop yields.
• Sasakawa is a modern system - uses ridges at a spacing of 75cm and planting stations spaced at 25cm with 1 seed per station. It yields more per hectare and it also minimises intra-nutrient competition.

• Plant to a reasonable depth otherwise germination will greatly be affected. Planting too deep will result in late germination while shallow planting exposes the seeds to sunlight, birds, rodents and insect attack. Use the recommendation below;

• The plant population will depend on ridge and plant spacing of the particular crop variety.
• Sasakawa system of planting with a plant spacing of 75cm X 75 cm will have a plant population of 53, 334 plants/ha.
• Conventional planting system with a planting spacing of 90cm X 90cm will have a plant population of 37, 037 plants/ha

• Supplying should be done to cover for week seedlings un-germinated or dead seeds. This should be done within the first week after germination.