Growth, yield and NPK uptake by maize with complementary organic and inorganic fertilizers.

Abstract

High and sustainable crop yields in the tropics have been reported to be only possible with judicious combination of mineral fertilizers and organic amendments. Fertilizing croppings to achieve this has usually been a difficult task to achieve. The growth and yield of maize cultivated with a complementary application of organic and inorganic fertilizers was assessed compared with sole organic and sole inorganic fertilizers between April and July 2003 and 2004 at Ibadan, Nigeria, in the degraded tropical rain forest zone. There was a no-fertilizer treatment as the control. The organic fertilizer was an equal mixture of composted domestic waste and stale cow dung, applied at 10 tonnes ha -1 . Urea and Single super phosphate were applied as the inorganic fertilizer to supply 70 kg N and 13 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 respectively. The mixture of organic and inorganic fertilizer treatment consisted of half the rates used for sole organic and sole inorganic fertilizer treatments: 5 tonnes organic mixture was applied, with 35 kg N and 6.5 kg P 2 O 5. Maize plant height at 8 weeks after planting was highest with inorganic fertilizer application while the leaf area was highest with organic fertilizer application. Stover yield and cob yields were also highest with inorganic fertilizer. Complementary application of organic and inorganic fertilizers however had similar plant heights; stover yield as well as cob yields with inorganic fertilizer. Nitrogen appeared chelated with organic fertilizer application. Plant earleaf Nitrogen was highest (1.68%) with inorganic fertilizer while the control plots had a Nitrogen content of 1.12% which was higher than 0.84% and 0.98% N from sole organic and a complementary application of organic and inorganic fertilizers, respectively. Plant P content was increased by 136% and 15% with organic and inorganic fertilizers, respectively, but was reduced by 15% with complementary application of organic and inorganic fertilizers. The K content was highest with inorganic fertilizer (1.91%). Complementary application of organic and inorganic fertilizers had a K content of 1.70% while the organic -fertilized leaves had 1.53%. Stover nutrient uptake was highest for N and K with inorganic fertilizer while the P was highest with organic fertilizer application. Cultivating maize with complementary organic and inorganic fertilizers gives a comparable cob yield as inorganic fertilizer and has nutrients higher than from sole organic fertilizer application.

Effects of lime, vermicompost and chemical P fertilizer on yield of maize in Ebantu District, Western highlands of Ethiopia

“…Also, the effect of chemical P fertilizer was much greater when integrated with lime and VC. This is in agreement with reports of Bayu et al (2006) and Makinde and Ayoola (2010) who concluded that high and sustainable crop yields are only possible with integrated use of mineral fertilizers and OM. Tilahun et al (2013) also verified that integrated fertilizers application gave the maximum grain yield compared to the control.…”

“…This difference might be due to synergistic effects of lime, VC, and mineral P fertilizer as well as high doses of mineral P and VC used for luxuriant vegetative growth of plants. These results are in line with that of Makinde and Ayoola (2010), who demonstrated that the application of OM as fertilizers provides growth regulating substances and improves physicochemical and microbial properties of soils.…”

Effect of organic and mineral fertilization on proximate composition of three leafy vegetables harvested at different periods

“…All the leaves had high level of crude protein ranging between 18.8-27.8% dwb for S. radiatum, 19.4-24.5% dwb for C. sesamoïdes and 17.2-33.8% dwb for J. tenella compared with those reported for Struchium spaganophora (7.2% dwb, Oboh, 2006), Solanum nigrum L (13%, dwb, Afoloyan and Jimoh, 2008), Sonchus asper (L.) Hill (18.75%) and Corchorus tridens (15.7-17.7% dwb), (Asigbe-Berko et al, 1999;Mepha et al, 2007). Regarding fertilizer effect, the high level in crude protein observed during all cutting times for the leaves treated with NPK was expected and this could be mainly explained by the provision of fertilizer nitrogen with fast release (Makinde and Ayoola, 2010). Thus, the amounts of crude protein (19.4-24.46% dwb) in our study for C. sesamoïdes were lower than those obtained (26.08-34.64% dwb) by Fasakin (2004).…”

“…The high dry matter content (low moisture) obtained for organic fertilization (cowpat) in the case of C. sesamoïdes and J. tenella were also observed for carrot and cabbage (Pihter and Hall, 1990). On contrary, the high moisture content (low dry matter) of S. radiatum leaves at every cutting time was explained by the slow release of nutrients by organic fertilizers (Makinde and Ayoola, 2010). All the leaves had high level of crude protein ranging between 18.8-27.8% dwb for S. radiatum, 19.4-24.5% dwb for C. sesamoïdes and 17.2-33.8% dwb for J. tenella compared with those reported for Struchium spaganophora (7.2% dwb, Oboh, 2006), Solanum nigrum L (13%, dwb, Afoloyan and Jimoh, 2008), Sonchus asper (L.) Hill (18.75%) and Corchorus tridens (15.7-17.7% dwb), (Asigbe-Berko et al, 1999;Mepha et al, 2007).…”

Growth Parameters of DK8031 Maize Variety as Affected by Varying Irrigation and Nitrogen Fertilizer Rates in Embu County, Kenya

“…These results were comparable the one in this study and collaborates well with the findings of other researcher who found out that nitrogen rich poultry manure significantly improves vegetative growth [19]. Working on combinations of organic and inorganic fertilizers, it was shown that the plant height of maize at 8 weeks after sowing was highest with inorganic fertilizer application [20]. Work has indicated a linear response of plant height to nitrogen fertilizer increase that peaked at 100 kg N/ha, underscoring the importance of nitrogen in growth and development of maize crop [21,22].…”