Response of Jew’s Mallow (Corchorus olitorius L.) to Organic Manures in the Southern Guinea Savanna Agroecological Zone of Nigeria

Abstract

Field trials were conducted in 2014 and 2015 cropping seasons at the Teaching and Research Farm of Crop Science Department of the Taraba State College of Agriculture, Jalingo (Latitude 80° 50” N and Longitude 11° 50” E) to determine the response of Jew’s mallow (Corchorus olitorius (L.) to different types of organic manures. Treatments evaluated consisted of 3.0 t/ha each of four types of organic manures viz: poultry droppings, cow dung, sheep manure and goat manure with zero manure as control. Each treatment was replicated four times and laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD). Data collected included plant height, leaf length and width, and leaves yield/ha. The data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) and means difference were separated using least significance difference (LSD) at p=0.05 Result obtained indicated that organic manures improved the performance of Jew’s mallow with poultry manure having superior effect over other types of manures. Plants under this treatment were significantly (p ≤ 0.05) tallest (85.0/84.8 cm) with more leaves and produced correspondingly highest fresh leaf yield of 15,666.7 and 15,623.2 kg/ha in 2014 and 2015 cropping seasons, respectively. Application of poultry manure at 3.0 t/ha could be adopted to maximize the productivity of Corchorus olitorius for enhanced yield benefit to farmers in the study area.