Research Article

Effect of poultry manure on the growth and development of oil palm (elaeis guineensis l) seedling in a screen house

Owolabi JF^1*, Opoola E¹, Taiwo MA¹,  Foby ID² and Olarewaju JD³

¹Ahmadu Bello University, Division of Agricultural colleges. Kabba College of Agric

²Foby ID crop and soil science, Department, Rivers state university of science and Technology Port-Harcourt

³Faculty of Agriculture, Ahmadu Bello University, Samara-Zaria

*Corresponding author: jofome@yahoo.com; Tel: 08062238892

Accepted 06 January 2013

Abstract

This trial was conducted in the screen house of kabba college of Agriculture Teaching and Research farm. The objective of the experiment is to investigate the effect of different rate of poultry manure on the growth and development of oil palm seedlings at nursery stage. Rate of poultry manure considered for the experiment were 0, 50, 100 and 150g per seedling in a poly bag. Experimental design applied for this work was complete randomized design (C R D) with four replicate of the treatment. Data were collected on plant height and plant girth at weekly interval while number of leaves were on four weeks basis .The result obtained showed that at 16, 18, 20 and 22 weeks after planting there was no significant difference in plant height of oil palm seedling treated with 100g and 150g bags but they were significantly (p<0.5) higher than the control and 50g/bag. The same trend was observed for plant girth and number of leaves which was on weekly and four weeks interval respectively. Therefore, the use of poultry manure at 100g per seedling is beneficially in oil palm production than 150g per poly bag.

Keywords: poultry manure, oil palm seedling, sprouted nut, Nursery and poly bag