Abstract
This paper reports the short †term effects of organic and inorganic fertilizerapplications on the culturable resident bacterial and fungal properties of aFerric Acrisol in the semi â€Âdeciduous forest zone of Ghana after three continuouscropping seasons. The treatments were two compost types (i.e. 1:1compost comprising 1 part made up of Chromolaena, Stylosanthes, maizestover mixture and 1 part of cattle manure, 2:1 compost comprising 2 partsof Chromolaena, Stylosanthes, maize stover mixture and 1 part of cattle manure),cowdung, 100% NPK and a control replicated three times in a randomizedcomplete block design. The results showed that total microbial load on alogarithmic scale ranged from 4.6 cfu/g in the control to 5.4 on cowdungtreated plots. Bacterial counts on 2:1 compost applied at 5 t/ha treatedplots recorded 5% more bacteria than the 1:1 compost applied at 5 t/ha.Fungal counts in the control and inorganic treated plots were higher than theorganically amended plots. The highest and lowest microbial biomass C contentswere recorded on cowdung and 1:1 compost at 5 t/ha treated plotsrespectively. Microbial biomass N content ranged from 1.4 †8.2 mg N kgâ€Â1soil with a mean value of 6.2 mg N kg â€Â1 soil. Microbial biomass P contentranged from 3.6 †6.3 mg P kgâ€Â1 soil with a mean value of 5 mg P kgâ€Â1 soil.Microbial biomass carbon to organic carbon ratio varied from 18.37 to 85.63.
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