Growth Performance of Sterculia setigera (Del.) to Different Organic Manures

Abstract

A nursery experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of organic manures on the growth and development of Sterculia setigera (Del.). One hundred and sixty viable seeds were collected from Sterculia setigera tree around Federal College of Wildlife Management Estate, New Bussa, Nigeria. Each soil treatment of 40 kg was thoroughly mixed with 1 kg of each of different organic manure and filled into ten polypots. Ten seeds of S. setigera were sown in each polypot and later thinned to three after sprouting. The experiment was laid in a Completely Randomized Design with four treatments consisting of poultry droppings (T1), cow dung (T2), goat droppings (T3) and top soil only (T4) as control. The experiment was replicated four times. The polypots were watered twice daily and data taken fortnightly for three months. The parameters measured included germination rate, seedling height, number of leaves, and collar girth. Results were analysed using one-way ANOVA. Results showed that the overall performance of S. setigera seedlings were not significantly affected by organic manures at p ≤ 0.05. Soil treated with poultry droppings had highest germination rate (86%) and seedling height of 18.6 cm. Poultry droppings had the highest mean number of leaves (12) and highest mean collar girth of 3 cm with cow dung. Goat droppings and top soil bot had mean value of 2 cm of collar girth. Goat droppings did not perform optimally as it had the lowest mean germination rate (53%) and leaf count (8.4). The use of organic manure to improve growth performance of seedlings should be encouraged though, using poultry and cow-dung for S. setigera may be better than others