Evaluation of Different Nutritional and Soil Sources Fertilizers on the Early Growth of Moringa oleifera (Lam)

Abstract

In any plantation establishment programme there should be adequate number of healthy seedlings and this depends on the nutrition and care given to them at the nursery stage. Pot experiment was conducted to assess the response of Moringa oleifera (Lam) seedlings to different soil and nutritional sources at nursery stage. One hundred seeds were obtained from Centre for Environmental Renewable Resources Research and Development (CENRAD) Ibadan, Nigeria and sown in germination trays. Seed germination was completed between 10-15 days, 36 uniformly growing seedlings were transplanted into polythene pots of size 29×25 cm and were filled with different soil sources at 500 gm (arable) soil, forest reserve soil and natural forest mixed with nutritional sources of the same ratio (10 gm) i.e. poultry manure, cow dung and N.P.K 15.15.15. The experiment was factorial arranged in a completely randomized design. Result showed that pots with natural forest soil mixed with 10 gm N.P.K (s3f3) produced seedlings with highest value In plant height (76.30 cm), stem diameter (3.47 mm) and number of branches (10.00) which was significantly different (p< 0.01) from the other treatments. The least value in plant height (30.70 cm) stem diameter (1.50 mm) and number of branches (3.3) were recorded in pots with forest reserve soil mixed with cow dung (s2f2). Interaction effect of soil and nutritional sources were significant for all the growth parameters assessed (p<0.01). Results showed that Natural forest soils treated with N.P.K 15.15.15 could be employed in raising Moringa oleifera seedlings at nursery stage for optimum performance.