Assessment of the early growth and development of Nauclea diderrichii [de wild] to NPK and some organic fertilizer

Abstract

The study investigated the effects of composted leaf litter of Gliricidia sepium [GS] and Tithonia diversifolia [TD], poultry manure [PM] and N.P.K [15;15;15] on the early growth and development of Nauclea diderrichii seedings. The treatment were applied at the rate of 10t/ha TD, 10t/ha PM, 10t/ha GS +10t/ha GS +10t/ha +10t/ha PM and 100kg/ha NPK 15;15;15 at after transplanting. However, N diderrichii seedings that did not receive neither organic nor NPK 8 weeks fertilizer served as the control. Seedings of the Nauclea diderrichii of uniform height were selected and transplanted into medium seized polypots containing 2kg topsoil at 2months. The expirement was laid out in a completely randomized design [CRD] with four replicates. Seedings were watered daily to field capacity. Application of 10t/ha GS +10t/ha TD gave the best growth performance after six months as compared with the control in terms of plant height, stem diameter, number of leaves, leaf area and total dry matter yield. Thus, the composted leaf litter of Gliricidia specium and Tithonia diversifolia at 10t/ha mixture combination [10t/ha GS +10t/ha TD] and can be applied as organic amendment to improve the growth performance of Nauclea diderrichii during the seedings stage instead of using NPK 15;15;15