Abstract
This experiment was established to investigate the comparative effect of organic and inorganic soil amendments on the growth of cashew seedlings. Cashew nuts were planted in potting medium filled with well drained loamy soil and placed in a screenhouse. Cashew seeds with 8 to 9 g weight were selected and viability test was carried out using Tetrazolium test (TZ) viability test to ascertain how viable the seeds were before sown in a potting medium. After two weeks of germination, amended with the following treatments at various levels; NPK 15:15:15, composted cow dung, composted poultry dropping, sunshine organo-mineral, pig manure and control (No fertilizer). Complete randomized design (CRD) was used for the experimental layout with three replicates. Agronomic parameters in the study include; stem girth, plant height, number of leaves, leaf length and width. Cashew seedlings were more responsive to the animal sourced fertilizers (organic manure) compared to the inorganic (NPK 15, 15, 15) and control (No fertilizer). Composted poultry droppings fertilizer (PDF) showed higher significant differences on stem girth, plant height and cow dung gave significant difference on number of leaves from 2 to 8 weeks of growth after treatments application, sunshine organomineral and composted poultry droppings fertilizer gave higher significant differences at 8 weeks on leaf length and width respectively. Key words: Cashew nut (Anacardium occidentale L.), seedlings, organo-mineral, soil amendments.
Highlights
Cashew tree, Anacardium occidentale, belongs to the Anacardiaceae family of plants which includes the mango, pistachio, and poison ivy
Composted poultry droppings fertilizer (PDF) gave higher significant difference (0.76) compare with other organic fertilizer sources used in this experiment on stem girth of seedlings, this may be attributed to higher concentration of Nitrogen (N) in PDF than composted cowdung (CDGF) and pig dung (PDG), CDGF and PDG gave higher significant values (0.75 and 0.73) respectively in comparism with sunshine organomineral, NPK and control
Cow dung gave significant difference (7.41) on the number of leaves produced by seedlings at 2 to 8 weeks, this reiterates the fact that organic fertilizers steadily release available nutrients overtime and not like inorganic fertilizers that release nutrients within a short period to plant, leaches away from the root zones (Carl and Roger, 2005)
Summary
Anacardium occidentale, belongs to the Anacardiaceae family of plants which includes the mango, pistachio, and poison ivy. A medium-sized, spreading evergreen tree native to Brazil, but grown widely in the tropics for its edible nuts and the oil contained in the shells. The fruit consists of a fleshy, red or yellow, termed the apple, at the end of which is borne a hard-shelled, kidney-shaped nut. Cashew trees are spread throughout the tropics, commercial production is centered in India, which handles 90% of the world trade. The cashew tree grows with minimum of attention and is cultivated. Cashew nuts are edible when roasted and used extensively in the confectionery and baking trade. The cashew nuts shell liquid is a
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