The Effects of Fish Pond Sediments and Cow Dung on the Early Growth of Afrormosia elata Harms Seedlings

Abstract

More often than not, the emphasis is laid on the essence of employing organic manures for raising plant seedlings and even in improving the nutrient status of their growth media for higher productivity. Afrormosia elata has numerous medicinal uses but not very much available. Thus, the study on the effects of fish pond sediments (FPS) and decomposed cow dung (DCD) on the early growth of A. elata seedlings was carried out at the nursery ‘A’ of the Federal College of Forestry, Ibadan, Nigeria. A. elata seeds were sown in a finely perforated sieve (filled with washed river sand) and seedlings were pricked – out 2 weeks after seedling emergence into polythene pots with varying levels of FPS and DCD. The experimental design was Completely Randomized Design (CRD) consisting of nine treatments and eight replicates. Treatments include; T1(2 kg of FPS + 2 kg of topsoil); T2 (2 kg of DCD + 2 kg of topsoil); T3 (1.5 kg of FPS + 2 kg of topsoil); T4 (1.5 kg of DCD + 2 kg of topsoil); T5 (1 kg of FPS + 2 kg of topsoil); T6 (1 kg of DCD + 2 kg of topsoil); T7 (500 g of FPS + 2 kg of topsoil); T8 (500 g of DCD + 2 kg topsoil); and 2 kg of topsoil without any treatment served as control). Morphological parameters such as seedling height, collar diameter and leaf count as well as leaf biomass were assessed and the data collected were subjected to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The result showed that T3 (1.5 kg FPS + 2 Kg TS) had the best performance in height, leaf area and leaf biomass with mean values of 11.02 cm, 21.65 cm2 and 1.16 g respectively. Though, there were no significant differences amongst the growth parameters assessed for this study. But T3 (1.5 kg FPS + 2 Kg TS) could be employed in raising the seedlings of this plant for faster growth rate.