Influence of different compost on the early growth of <i>Detarium microcarpum</i> guill & perr seedlings

Abstract

Detarium microcarpum commonly known as sweet detar is an African food crop tree belonging to Fabaceae family. Experiment was carried out to investigate the Influence of different compost (Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit, Moringa olifera and Gliricidium sepium leaves) on the early growth of Detarium microcarpum Guill & perr seedlings. The seeds of D. microcarpum were collected, air dried and sowed into a germination box. After germination, fifty - two (52) healthy seedlings were carefully selected and were transplanted into polythene pots filled with 2kg of top soil and applied different quantities of compost The treatments used were( 40g, 50g, 60g and 70g) and control without compost application. The experiment was laid out in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The parameters assessed were; plant fresh height (cm), stem diameter (mm), leaf dry weight, stem dry weight, root dry weight, leaf area and number of leaves. Data collected were subjected to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and the means were separated using Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT). The results showed that ( T1) 40g of L. leucocephala compost with 2kg of top soil had the best performance in terms of height with mean value of 14.89cm, stem diameter with mean value of 5.23mm and number of leaves with a mean value of 8.97 and leaf area was 214.89 while the least performance was observed in T1 (2kg of top soil) having a mean value of 2.22cm2 in number of leaves , stem diameter with mean value of 1.12mm and height with a mean value of 8.21cm and leaf area is 79.36 , Consequently mean value of biomass accumulation ,seedlings grown with ( T1) 40 g of L. leucocephala compost produced the highest mean of 1.98g of while T13 gave the least value with mean of 0.40g in (LWD), seedlings with T1 had the highest mean value of 0.95g while T13 gave the least mean value of 0.15g in (SWD). Result from the Analysis indicated that there was significant difference in height, leaf number, stem girth and biomass accumulation of Root dry weight at 5% level of probability. It is therefore recommended that ( T1) 40g of L. leucocephala compost should be adopted for raising of D. microcarpum in the nursery to have quality, healthy, good vigour and high production of the species.

Keywords: Detarium microcarpum seedlings, Leucaena leucocephala , Moringa olifera , Giliricidium sepium and Compost