Prospects of Integrated Application of Moringa (Moringa oleifera) Leaf Extract, NPK Fertilizer and Poultry Manure on Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) Production

Abstract

A field trial was conducted to investigate the effects of integrated application of moringa leaf  extract (Maringa oleifera), poultry manure, and NPK 15-15-15 fertilizer on the growth and yield attributes of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus)at the Teaching and Research Farm of Ekiti State University,  Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria during 2018 cropping season. The experimental design was a randomized complete block with three replicates. The treatments included; Poultry manure (PM), Moringa leaf (ML), NPK fertilizer (NPKF), NPK fertilizer + Moringa leaf (ML+ NPKF), poultry manure and Moringa leaf (ML+PM), and control (C). At 2 weeks after planting (WAP), PM, NPKF, and ML+PM gave okra plant height of 3.74 cm, 3.98 cmand 3.82 cm, respectively, which were higher than 2.7 cm for C. While ML gave the highest plant height of 4.05 cm, which was higher than other treatments. Of all the treatments, ML+PM gave the highest fruit weight of 1.343 t/ha and differed (P < 0.05) from the rest of other treatments; while C had the least fruit weight of0.199 t/ha. ML+PM, NPKF, and ML+ NPKF gave total fruit number per plant of 47, 44 and 36 respectively, which differed (P < 0.05) to other treatment and the C gave the least fruit number of 15.67 per plant. The results showed that the application of PM+ML improved the growth and yield of okra, hence poultry manure and moringa leaf should be used instead of NPK fertilizer, which can also lower the cost of production.