Comparative effects of charred bamboo and its ash on the growth of <I>Entandrophragma angolense</I> (welw.) C dc seedlings

Abstract

Entandrophragma angolense is relatively slow growing species and its growth needs to be enhanced by soil nutrients amendment. Uniformed two weeks old seedlings of E. angolense were transplanted into the polythene pots filled with 2kg of degraded soil and mixed with different levels of biochar and ash produced from bamboo. A 2 x 7 factorial experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with four replications to assess the effects of charred bamboo and its ash on the stem girth, leaf area, leaf production and shoot height of E. angolense. The germination data were subjected to descriptive statistics and analysis of variance (ANOVA). There were significant differences (p<0.05) among the treatments in leaf area and shoot height while there were no significant differences (p>0.05) among the treatments in stem girth, leaf production and interactions among levels of biochar and ash. On stem girth, leaf production and shoot height, T₆ (15g of bio char + 15g of ash + degraded soil) had the highest mean value of 4.27 mm, 4.59 and 37.55cm respectively while T₂ (30g of bio char + 0g of ash + degraded soil) had the highest leaf area (73.31cm² ). The biochar and ash from bamboo had significant effects on the growth and development of E. angolense seedlings on degraded soil.

Keywords: Degraded soil, Pyrolysis, Biochar, Ash, E. angolense