Preliminary Study on the Effects of Two Different Sources of Organic Manure on the Growth Performance of Moringa oleifera Seedlings

Abstract

The study was designed to investigate the effects of application of two sources of organic manure, namely poultry droppings and cow dung manure on the vegetative growth and photosynthetic pigments of Moringa oleifera seedlings. The experimental design was completely randomized design, consisting of 540 seedlings in black polythene bags fertilized with 15 g of organic manure per plant by point application of poultry dropping and cow dung. Thus, each seedling in the treatments received 15 g of either partly decomposed poultry droppings or 15 g of partly decomposed cow dung or none of the manure (ie controls). Seedling height, stem girth, root length and root girth were measured with a metre rule and the aid of a thread. Seedling dry weight and leaf relative water contents were also determined. Photosynthetic pigments were determined by the spectrophotometer technique. The results indicated that both sources of organic manure significantly (p < 0.01) increased growth performance of Moringa oleifera seedlings but the photosynthetic pigments in the leaves were not significantly affected by the effects of both sources of organic manure. The results thus showed that both poultry manure and cow dung are valuable sources of fertilizer for Moringa oleifera seedlings but poultry manure out-performed cow dung in all growth attributes assessed because it produced higher values for all the attributes. However, the values for chlorophyll and carotenoid content did not show clear-cut differences between the two sources of organic manure. It is therefore, recommended that in the event of a choice between the two for crop production in general and Moringa in particular, poultry manure would be a better option.

Keywords: Cow dung, Moringa oleifera, Organic manure, Poultry manure, Seedling.