Efficacy of Two (2) Organic Fertilizer Sources (Oil Palm Bunch and Vermicast) on the Growth Response of Tetrapleura tetraptera

Abstract

To increase awareness of Tetrapleura tetraptera potential uses, enhance its utilization and promote its domestication as a fruit trees, a potential use of organic manure as soil amendment in afforestation, reforestation, agroforestry, fruit tree orchards, and bio-energy plantations cannot be over emphasized. Therefore, the study to determine the efficacy of organic manure (sole application and its interaction) on the growth of Tetrapleura tetraptera under a screen house condition was carried out in Federal College of Forest, Ibadan located within the government Reserve Area (GRA) Jericho Ibadan. The experimental design was a 2 x 8 factorial arranged in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with seven (7) replicates each making a total of 112 experimental samples. The treatments used were as follows: vermicast at two levels (20t/ha, 40t/ha), oil palm bunch at two levels (20t/ha, 40t/ha), interaction of vermicast and oil palm bunch (1:1, 1:2 and 2:1) and Control (no amendment). Data on plant height number of leaves, collar diameter and dry matter yields were generated and subjected to analysis of variance and significant means separated using Duncan’s Multiple Range Test at 5 % level of significance. The results shows that, the collar diameter of Tetrapleura tetraptera increased (P=0.05) with the sole application of oil palm bunch at 40t/ha with a mean value of 2.16mm , however, this increase can also be comparable to the sole application of oil palm bunch at 20t/ha with a mean value of 2.04 mm. Oil palm bunch at 20t/ha recorded the highest plant of Tetrapleura tetraptera with a mean value of 18.00 cm while the interaction of VC+OB (2:1) and VC 40t/ha are also relatively comparable to the control (no amendment) to improve the plant height. The highest leaves number was observed when oil palm bunch 20t/ha was used as an amendment with a mean value of 14.0 while the lowest number of leaves was recorded with the interaction VC+OB 1:1 with a mean value of 12.0. From the results obtained, oil palm bunch residue as an organic fertilizer improves the growth of Tetrapleura tetraptera.