Influence of Varying Rates of Fertilizers on the Performance of Cacao (<i>Theobroma cacao</i>) Seedlings in the Nursery

Abstract

Effects of application of poultry manure, organo-mineral fertilizer, NPK soil or foliar applied at varying rates on cacao seedlings were studied in the nursery between January-May 2011 and December to April, 2012. Poultry manure at 40, 50 and 60g/plant significantly influenced cacao seedlings height and number of leaves over other treatments. The effect of organo-mineral fertilizer application at 50 and 60g per plant on the number of leaves was also significantly better than NPK soil or foliar applied, starting from 12 weeks after treatment application. The stem girth development under poultry manure at 50 and 60g per plant application had the best performance followed by poultry manure at 40g per plant. There were no significant differences in almost all the treatments at 5 weeks after sowing on seedlings stem girth. NPK has the longest tap root length while poultry manure had the largest average number of lateral roots followed by organo-mineral. The results thereby indicated that the use of poultry manure at 40 to 50g per plant and organo-mineral fertilizer as sources of nutrients had significant effects on cacao seedling quality.