Abstract
The impact of nutrient sources cannot be over emphasised in plant growth. Seedlings of Annona muricata were subjected to organic fertilizers, inorganic fertilizers and fertilizer-free treatmentsin this study. The organic fertilizers comprises of cow dung, poultry manure and water hyacinth, while NPK fertilizer was used as the inorganic manure and Top soil without fertilizer application was used as the control. The organic fertilizers were singly used and mixed at the rate of 100kg/ha and 200kg/ha while the inorganic fertilizer was used at the rate 100kg/ha and 200kg/ha. The parameters taken were plant height, stem girth, leaf area and leaf production. Results obtained showed that poultry manure produced the tallest plants (23.50cm) at 3months after transplanting though this was not significantly different from those of cow dung manure (23.00cm). NPK fertilizer produced the plant with highest leaf area (32.75cm) and stem girth (2.25cm) at 3 months after transplanting and was not significantly different from the organic fertilizers (Poultry manure 200g/ha, Cow dung 200g/ha, Water hyacinth 100g/ha and 200g/ha). NPK fertilizer also produced the highest number of leaves at the end of the three month assessment (31.00cm). All the growth parameters observed showed that the control experiment gave the least performance. The results obtained tend to suggest that the use of NPK fertilizer should be recommended for growing Annona muricata and improvement of the soil nutrients level.
Highlights
A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow, and reproduce [1]
Cow dung and poultry manure were collected from Ekiti State University's Animal Farm, while water hyacinth was collected from Jetty River, Isashi community in Ikorodu, Lagos-State, Nigeria
Cow dung has the highest organic carbon (271g/kg) and the highest value for total Nitrogen (38.20g/kg) and this was followed by poultry manure with organic carbon and total Nitrogen of (223.75g/kg) and (25.25g/kg) respectively
Summary
A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow, and reproduce [1]. Plant nutrients consist of more than a dozen minerals absorbed through roots, plus carbon dioxide and oxygen absorbed or released through leaves. All organisms obtain all their nutrients from the surrounding environment [2]. The soil supplies nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sulphur [3]; these are often called the macronutrients. It supplies iron, manganese, boron, molybdenum, copper, zinc, chlorine, and cobalt, in small proportions, these are called micronutrients. Hydrogen and oxygen from air in form of water and carbon dioxide [4, 5]. Nutrients must be available in sufficient amounts and in appropriate ratios [6]
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