research article effect of fertilizer types on the growth ...signi cantly to the amount of carotene,...

Research ArticleEffect of Fertilizer Types on the Growth andYield of Amaranthus caudatus in Ilorin Southern GuineaSavanna Zone of Nigeria

Olowoake Adebayo Abayomi and Ojo James Adebayo

Department of Crop Production Kwara State University PMB 1530 Ilorin Nigeria

Correspondence should be addressed to Olowoake Adebayo Abayomi aolowoakeyahoocom

Received 10 September 2014 Revised 9 November 2014 Accepted 10 November 2014 Published 20 November 2014

Academic Editor Albino Maggio

Copyright copy 2014 O Adebayo Abayomi and O James Adebayo This is an open access article distributed under the CreativeCommons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use distribution and reproduction in any medium provided theoriginal work is properly cited

Field experiment was carried out at the Teaching and Research Farm of Kwara State University Malete Ilorin to evaluate theeffect of compost organomineral and inorganic fertilizers on the growth and yield of Amaranthus caudatus as well as its residualeffectsAmaranthuswas grownwith compost Grade B (unamended compost) organomineral fertilizer GradeA (compost amendedwith mineral fertilizer) and NPK 15-15-15 and no fertilizer (control) All the treatments except control were applied at the rate of100 kgNhaThe results indicated that theAmaranthus yield of 189 tha produced fromGrade Awas significantly (119875 lt 005) higherthan 176 tha obtained fromNPK fertilizer Residual effect ofAmaranthus growth parameters such as plant height number of leavesand yield values obtained from Grade A was also significantly (119875 lt 005) higher than that of NPK compost and control valuesThus organomineral fertilizer could be used in cultivation of Amaranthus caudatus in Ilorin and in similar type of soil in similaragroecology

1 Introduction

Vegetable production in Africa is as old as peasant farmingthough its cultivation is still at the household level with veryfew farmers producing on a commercial level This couldbe due to the fact that crops such as cereals roots andtubers and body-building crops like legumes are given muchattention Cereals and tubers form the bulk of food consumedin the tropics but they are deficient in minerals and vitaminscompared to the body requirement to guarantee good healthyliving [1]

Amaranths species is a leafy vegetable in the tropicalregion of world It forms a high percentage of the daily intakeof leafy vegetables [2] Amaranthus caudatus is grown for itsleaves and is among the highly prized leaf vegetables in Nige-ria due to their high nutritional and commercial significance

There is an increasing awareness of value of leafy veg-etable in contributing to balanced diet particularly in areawhere animal protein is deficient Leafy vegetables contributesignificantly to the amount of carotene vitamin c protein

andminerals particularly calcium [3] To growvegetable ama-ranth it is necessary to know the effect of sources of nitrogenfertilization on its yield because nitrogen was found to be theprimary limiting factors of Amaranths production [4] MostNigerian soils have low nitrogen and the low nitrogen statusis usually supplemented with N fertilizer and the importanceof this source has increased over the year However theproblem with the usage of chemical fertilizer is that while itcan lead to high crop yield it results into pollution of groundwater after crop harvest [5] Another major limitation to theusage of chemical fertilizers is due to the adverse effects theyhave on plant quality and disease susceptibility A continualdependence on chemical fertilizers may be accompaniedby a fall in organic matter content increased soil aciditydegradation of soil physical properties and increased rateof erosion due to instability of soil aggregates [6 7] Oneof the ways to maintain or improve the soil fertility is bymaintaining its organic matter This is possible through theuse of organic sources of fertilizer

Hindawi Publishing CorporationAdvances in AgricultureVolume 2014 Article ID 947062 5 pageshttpdxdoiorg1011552014947062

2 Advances in Agriculture

Research has shown that organic based fertilizers are lessleached into ground water than the chemical fertilizer [8]As a result of this fact the use of organic based fertilizer hasfound favour in boosting crop production inNigeria becauseit is cheap and less likely to pollute the ground water as muchas chemical fertilizer It improves soil fertility status as well asincreasing the income of farmers via increase in yield

Amaranthus like a number of other vegetables requiressoil with a high organic content and with adequate nutrientreserve for optimum yield Hence organomineral fertilizerappears to be reliable organic source of N with a relativelylarge amount of N needed for growing Amaranths Manyresearchers have reported that complimentary use of organicfertilizers is able to give the desired higher sustainablecrop yields than sole use of inorganic fertilizer [1 9 10]Therefore the objective of this study is to determine the effectof inorganic organic and organomineral fertilizers on thegrowth and yield of Amaranthus caudatus as well as its resid-ual effect

2 Materials and Methods

The experimental site was located at the experimentalplot of Kwara State University Malete (08∘42101584048510158401015840N and004∘26101584017910158401015840E) Ilorin Nigeria which lies in the southernguinea savanna belt of Nigeria The annual rainfall in thearea is about 1200mm and temperature varies between 33∘Cand 34∘C during the year with a distinct dry season fromDecember to March The Kwara State University land areaforms part of the SouthWestern sector of Nigerian basementcomplex a zone of basement reactivation and plutonismduring the Pan-African orogeny [11] The soil used for thetrial has been cultivated in previous years therewas no recordof fertilizer usage The soil was well drained of gentle slopeTwenty core soil samples were collected randomly from 0 to15 cm depth in the site using soil auger thoroughly mixed andthe bulk sample taken to the laboratory air dried and sievedto pass through a 2mm screen for soil physical and chemicalanalysis The soil sample was analyzed for soil texture pHorganic carbon total N extractable P exchangeable levels ofCa Mg Na and K and cation exchange capacity Soil texturewas determined by the Bouyoucos hydrometer method [12]Soil pH was measured electrometrically in a 1 25 soil-water suspension [13] Organic carbon by Walkey-Blackmethod [12] Total nitrogen was determined by the Micro-Kjeldahl method [14] whereas extractable P was determinedby Bray 1 method [15] Exchangeable levels of Ca Mg Kand Na were determined by the atomic absorption spec-trophotometer following the procedures outlined by Wildeet al [16] Micronutrients were extracted with 01 EDTA anddetermined using atomic absorption spectrophotometer

21 Experimental Layout The seeds of Amaranthus caudatuswere sown on 23rd January 2012 on a prepared nurserybeds watered regularly using a watering can and checked forseedling emergence Transplanting of amaranths seedlingsinto their respective plots in the field took place two weeksafter sowing on 6th February 2012 The site was manuallycleared and 12 raised beds were made to conserve the soil and

Table 1 Proximate analysis for organomineral fertilizer Grades Aand B

Nutrient element ConcentrationGrade A Grade B

N (g kgminus1) 509 102P (g kgminus1) 440 76K (g kgminus1) 108 209Mg (g kgminus1) 19 24Ca (g kgminus1) 277 234Na (g kgminus1) 35 29Fe (mg kgminus1) 71523 89154Zn (mg kgminus1) 15 19Mn (mg kgminus1) 933 1067Cu (mg kgminus1) 149 169Source Aleshinloye Fertilizer Company Ibadan Nigeria

its nutrient availability The experimental plot was dividedinto three blocks each containing four beds Each bed sizewas 2m times 1m with 1m alley between plots and blocksSeedlings were transplanted at 2 weeks after transplantingon beds at spacing 50 cm times 20 cm The treatments consistedof three fertilizer types Grade A (compost amended withmineral fertilizer) Grade B (un-amended compost) NPK15-15-15 and control (no soil additive) Grades A and B arecommercial products of Aleshinloye Fertilizer Plant IbadanOyo State Nigeria The results of analyses of the fertilizerare summarized in Table 1 The fertilizers were applied byring method 5 cm radius and about 2 cm deep around theAmaranthus plant at the rate of 100 kgNha [6] Grades Aand B fertilizers were applied a week before transplantingwhile inorganic fertilizer was applied a day to transplantingEach vegetable bed contained thirty plants out of whichfive were randomly tagged for data collection Collectionof data commenced from 2 weeks after transplanting andwas done weekly till the fourth weeks First harvestingwas carried out on 5th March 2012 The experiment wasrepeated immediately after harvesting without any fertilizerapplication at the second planting in order to evaluate theresidual effects of the fertilizers The harvesting of vegetablesgrown in the pot without treatment was done on 16th April2012 (6 weeks after planting)

The data taken include plant height stem girth numberof leaves per plant fresh root weight and yield The datacollected were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA)and treatment means were separated by Duncan multiplerange test (DMRT)

3 Results and Discussion

Table 2 shows the result of the physical and chemical analysisof the soil studied The soil was clay and slightly acidic Thevalues of total nitrogen available phosphorus and potassiumof the experimental soil were below the critical values of thesoil of Guinea Savanna [17 18] this may be due to low soilorganic matter The low soil contents for the major nutrients

Advances in Agriculture 3

Table 2 Physicochemical properties of the experimental soil

Parameters Soil test valuepH 64Org C (g kgminus1) 20Total N (g kgminus1) 244P Mehlich (m gkgminus1) 9Exchangeable bases (cmol kgminus1)

K 12Mg 32Na 19Ca 51

Extractable micronutrients (cmol kgminus1)Fe 53Zn 13Mn 49Cu 26

Textural class ()Sand 568Silt 100Clay 332Textural class Clay

signify the need for improvement of Amaranthus caudatusperformance

Plant heights as affected by organic amendments andNPK are shown in Figure 1There were significant differences(119875 lt 005) in plant height values obtained from the treatmentof Grade B and NPK during the first and residual growingperiod Results showed that at the end of 4 WAT Grade AGrade B and NPK plant height values differed significantly(119875 lt 005) from control The highest plant height 469 cmand 385 cm was obtained from organomineral Grade A bothat first and residual planting respectively

The highest plant height obtained from Grade A maybe probably due to favourable nutrient mineralization ofthis fertilizer as a result of the influence of the mineralcomponent on the organic content of the compost [10 19]The control plants produced the shortest plants as they hadto rely on the native soil fertility which from the result ofchemical analysis was deficient in nutrients Figure 2 showsthat Grade A significantly enhanced the production of leavesand maintained the trend observed in plant height at bothfirst and residual planting Changes in the number of leavesare bound to affect the overall performance ofAmaranthus asthe leaves serve as photosynthetic organ of the plant [20]

There were no significant differences (119875 lt 005) onnumber of leaves for plot treated with Grade B and NPKThe higher number of leaves produced from organomineralGrade A over the NPK throughout the growing periodcould be due to sustaining release of nutrients from theformer over the latter [1] Thus the increase in numberof leaves under amended unamended and NPK fertilizersapplication reconfirmed the role of fertilizer in promotingvegetative growth in leafy vegetables [21]

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Control Grade A Grade B NPK

Hei

ght (

cm)

Treatment

1st plantingResidual

369c

469a

404b

384b

235c

385a

288b

26b

Figure 1 Plant height of Amaranthus caudatus as influenced byapplication of organic fertilizers and NPK at 4 weeks after trans-planting Means having the same letter along the columns indicateno significant difference using Duncanrsquos multiple range test at 5probability level

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180


Num

ber o

f lea

ves

Treatments


1026c

1612a

1495b

150b

763c

1296a

1052b

104b

Figure 2 Number of leaves of Amaranthus caudatus as influencedby application of organic fertilizers and NPK at 4 weeks after trans-planting Means having the same letter along the columns indicateno significant difference using Duncanrsquos multiple range test at 5probability level

Table 3 shows the response of stem girth and yieldparameters of Amaranthus caudatus to application of organicfertilizer and NPK All the fertilizers applied were found toincrease the stem girth root weight and yield of Amaranthswhen compared with control At 4 weeks after transplanting(WAT) stem girth of Amaranths with Grades A and B andNPK were significantly (119875 lt 005) higher than stem girth of


Table 3 Effect of fertilizer types on the stem girth and yield param-eters of Amaranthus caudatus at 4 weeks after transplanting

Treatment Stem girth(cm)

Fresh rootweight(gplant)

Yield(tha)

1st plantingControl 0 60c 274d 121c

Grade A 75a 392a 189a

Grade B 69b 347b 176b

NPK 70b 310c 176b

Residual effectControl 44c 78d 36c

Grade A 59a 30a 75a


NPK 51b 153c 53b

Means having the same letter along the columns indicate no significantdifference using Duncanrsquos multiple range test at 5 probability level

control both at first and residual planting However Grade Aproduced the highest stem girth of 75 cm and 59 cm whichwas 17 and 25 greater than the control

With respect to the effects of different fertilizers on freshroots and shoot yield at first and residual planting all thetreatments differed significantly (119875 lt 005) from the controlThe fresh roots weight of both first and residual planting werein the orderGradeAgtGradeBgtNPKgt controlThe increasein root weight suggested that root growth parameters weredifferentially affected by application of fertilizer types

However the trend for shoot yield of Amaranthus was inorder of GradeAgtNPKgtGrade Bgt control Amaranth yieldwas least without application of fertilizer This confirmed thefindings of [22] who reported the application of organicmineral and organomineral fertilizer for enhancement ofAmaranthus cruentus yield There were no significant dif-ference (119875 lt 005) in the yield of Amaranthus with plottreated with NPK and Grade B at both plantings Table 3 alsoshowed that organomineral Grade A had the highest yieldof 189 tha compared to other obtained from fertilizer treat-ments Residual effect of Amaranthus yield values obtainedfrom organomineral Grade A was also significantly (119875 lt005) higher than that of NPK compost and control valuesThis was similar to the works of Akanni et al [23] Ayeni [24]and Ogunlade et al [1] who reported that the combinationsof organic and mineral fertilizer perform better on the yieldof tomato maize and Solanummacrocarpon than when eachof them is solely used

4 Conclusion

This study showed that Grade A fertilizer at 100 kgNha gavethe best performances in all theAmaranthus caudatus growthparameters Given its superior responses organomineralGrade A fertilizer could be a very attractive fertilizer alter-native particularly for annual crops with short growth cyclesuch as Amaranthus It is therefore reasonable to recommendthe use of organomineral Grade A fertilizer in the cultivation

of Amaranthus caudatus in Ilorin and similar type of soil insimilar agroecology

Conflict of Interests

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interestsregarding the publication of this paper

Acknowledgment

The authors are grateful to Centre for Community Devel-opment Unit (CCD) Kwara State University Malete IlorinNigeria for providing the fund for conducting this research

References

[1] M O Ogunlade E A Adeyemi D O Ogunleti and P SIbiyomi ldquoEffect of cocoa pod husk urea fortified cocoa podhusk and NPK fertilizers on the growth and yield of Solanummacrocarpon cultivationrdquo International Journal of Organic Agri-culture Research and Development vol 3 pp 1ndash8 2011

[2] M C Palada and L C Chang ldquoSuggested cultural practices forvegetable amaranthsrdquo International Cooperatorsrsquo Guide 03-552Asian Vegetable Research and Development Centre 2003

[3] H D Tindale Vegetable in the Tropics Macmillan New YorkNY USA 2nd edition 1983

[4] A Pospisil M Pospisil B Varga and Z Svecnjak ldquoGrain yieldand protein concentration of two amaranth species (Amaran-thus spp) as influenced by the nitrogen fertilizationrdquo EuropeanJournal of Agronomy vol 25 no 3 pp 250ndash253 2006

[5] W B Gordon D A Whitney and R J Raney ldquoNitrogenmanagement in furrow irrigated ridge tilled cornrdquo Journal ofProduction Agriculture vol 6 pp 213ndash217 1993

[6] O Adeoluwa and O O Adeogun ldquoEvaluation of feather asorganic fertilizers on Amaranthus (Amaranthus caudatus)rdquo inProceedings of the 1st TechnicalWorkshop onOrganic AgricultureConference pp 16ndash19 Ladoke Akintola University of Technol-ogy Ogbomoso Nigeria 2010

[7] A A Olowoake and G O Adeoye ldquoComparative efficacy ofNPK fertilizer and composted organic residues on growthnutrient absorption and dry matter accumulation in maizerdquoInternational Journal of Organic Agriculture Research andDevel-opment vol 2 pp 43ndash53 2010

[8] M K C Sridhar and G O Adeoye ldquoOrganomineral fertilizerfrom urban wastesrdquoTheNigerian Field vol 68 pp 91ndash111 2003

[9] W B Akanbi A O Togun J A Adediran and E A O IlupejuldquoGrowth dry matter and fruit yields components of okra underorganic and inorganic sources of nutrientsrdquoAmerican-EurasianJournal of Sustainable Agriculture vol 4 no 1 pp 1ndash13 2010

[10] G O Adeoye M K C Sridhar O O Adeoluwa M OyekunleE AMakinde andAAOlowoake ldquoComparative evaluation oforgano-mineral fertilizer (OMF) and mineral fertilizer (NPK)on yield and quality of maize (Zea mays (L) Moench)rdquoNigerianJournal of Soil Science vol 18 pp 141ndash147 2008

[11] J O Olaniyan An evaluation of the soil map of Nigeria for landuse planning in Kwara State [PhD thesis] University of IbadanIbadan Nigeria 2003

[12] A S R Juo SelectedMethods for Soil and Plant Analysis ManualSeries no 1 IITA Ibadan Nigeria 2nd edition 1978

[13] E O McLean ldquoSoil pH and Lime requirementrdquo Agronomy vol9 pp 199ndash223 1982


[14] J M Bremner and C S Mulvaney ldquoNitrogen totalrdquo inMethodsof Soil Analysis Part 2 A L Page and R H Miller Eds vol 9 ofAgronomyMonograph pp 595ndash624 ASA SSSA Madison WisUSA 1982

[15] R H Bray and L T Kurtz ldquoDetermination of total organic andavailable forms of phosphorus in soilsrdquo Soil Science vol 39 pp39ndash45 1945

[16] S A Wilde R B Corey V G Iver and G K Voigt Soil andPlant Analysis for Tree Culture Oxford and IBH PublishingNew Delhi India 1979

[17] M O Aduloju ldquoAcid extractable micronutrients (Mn and Zn)in selected soils of vegetables producing areas of Kwara StateNigeriardquoNigeria Journal of Horticultural Science vol 9 pp 116ndash199 2004

[18] O J Ayodele ldquoSoil fertility management for the production offruits and vegetables in South Western Nigeriardquo Acta Horticul-ture vol 128 pp 237ndash242 1983

[19] L J Sikora and N K Enkiri ldquoEfficiency of compost-fertilizerblends compared with fertilizer alonerdquo Soil Science vol 165 no5 pp 444ndash451 2000

[20] K E Law-Ogbomo and S O Ajayi ldquoGrowth and yield perform-ance of Amaranthus cruentus influenced by planting densityand poultry manure applicationrdquo Notulae Botanicae HortiAgrobotanici Cluj-Napoca vol 37 no 2 pp 195ndash199 2009

[21] H Tijani-Eniola O W F Nwagwu and O P AiyelarildquoResponse of Celosia argentea L to different nitrogen sourcesand frequency of harvestrdquo in Proceeding of the 18th HORTSONConference vol 28 pp 151ndash160 ARABU Zaria Nigeria May2000

[22] A A Olowoake ldquoInfluence of organicmineral and organomin-eral fertilizers on growth yield and soil properties in grainamaranth (Amaranthus cruentus L)rdquo Journal of Organics vol1 no 1 pp 39ndash47 2014

[23] D I Akanni S O Ojeniyi andM A Awodun ldquoSoil propertiesgrowth yield and nutrient content of Maize Pepper and Ama-ranthus as influenced by organic and organomineral fertilizerrdquoJournal of Agricultural Science and Technology vol 1 pp 1074ndash1078 2011

[24] L S Ayeni ldquoIntegrated application of cocoa pod ash and NPKfertilizer on soil chemical properties and yield of tomatordquoAmerican-Eurasian Journal of Sustainable Agriculture vol 2 no3 pp 333ndash337 2008

Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom

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Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014


Food ScienceInternational Journal of

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International Journal of



Microbiology

The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom

Applied ampEnvironmentalSoil Science

Volume 2014

AgricultureAdvances in


PsycheHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

BiodiversityInternational Journal of


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GenomicsInternational Journal of


Plant GenomicsInternational Journal of


Biotechnology Research International


Forestry ResearchInternational Journal of


Journal of BotanyHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

EcologyInternational Journal of


Veterinary Medicine International


Cell BiologyInternational Journal of


Evolutionary BiologyInternational Journal of



Research has shown that organic based fertilizers are lessleached into ground water than the chemical fertilizer [8]As a result of this fact the use of organic based fertilizer hasfound favour in boosting crop production inNigeria becauseit is cheap and less likely to pollute the ground water as muchas chemical fertilizer It improves soil fertility status as well asincreasing the income of farmers via increase in yield

Amaranthus like a number of other vegetables requiressoil with a high organic content and with adequate nutrientreserve for optimum yield Hence organomineral fertilizerappears to be reliable organic source of N with a relativelylarge amount of N needed for growing Amaranths Manyresearchers have reported that complimentary use of organicfertilizers is able to give the desired higher sustainablecrop yields than sole use of inorganic fertilizer [1 9 10]Therefore the objective of this study is to determine the effectof inorganic organic and organomineral fertilizers on thegrowth and yield of Amaranthus caudatus as well as its resid-ual effect

2 Materials and Methods

The experimental site was located at the experimentalplot of Kwara State University Malete (08∘42101584048510158401015840N and004∘26101584017910158401015840E) Ilorin Nigeria which lies in the southernguinea savanna belt of Nigeria The annual rainfall in thearea is about 1200mm and temperature varies between 33∘Cand 34∘C during the year with a distinct dry season fromDecember to March The Kwara State University land areaforms part of the SouthWestern sector of Nigerian basementcomplex a zone of basement reactivation and plutonismduring the Pan-African orogeny [11] The soil used for thetrial has been cultivated in previous years therewas no recordof fertilizer usage The soil was well drained of gentle slopeTwenty core soil samples were collected randomly from 0 to15 cm depth in the site using soil auger thoroughly mixed andthe bulk sample taken to the laboratory air dried and sievedto pass through a 2mm screen for soil physical and chemicalanalysis The soil sample was analyzed for soil texture pHorganic carbon total N extractable P exchangeable levels ofCa Mg Na and K and cation exchange capacity Soil texturewas determined by the Bouyoucos hydrometer method [12]Soil pH was measured electrometrically in a 1 25 soil-water suspension [13] Organic carbon by Walkey-Blackmethod [12] Total nitrogen was determined by the Micro-Kjeldahl method [14] whereas extractable P was determinedby Bray 1 method [15] Exchangeable levels of Ca Mg Kand Na were determined by the atomic absorption spec-trophotometer following the procedures outlined by Wildeet al [16] Micronutrients were extracted with 01 EDTA anddetermined using atomic absorption spectrophotometer

21 Experimental Layout The seeds of Amaranthus caudatuswere sown on 23rd January 2012 on a prepared nurserybeds watered regularly using a watering can and checked forseedling emergence Transplanting of amaranths seedlingsinto their respective plots in the field took place two weeksafter sowing on 6th February 2012 The site was manuallycleared and 12 raised beds were made to conserve the soil and

Table 1 Proximate analysis for organomineral fertilizer Grades Aand B

Nutrient element ConcentrationGrade A Grade B

N (g kgminus1) 509 102P (g kgminus1) 440 76K (g kgminus1) 108 209Mg (g kgminus1) 19 24Ca (g kgminus1) 277 234Na (g kgminus1) 35 29Fe (mg kgminus1) 71523 89154Zn (mg kgminus1) 15 19Mn (mg kgminus1) 933 1067Cu (mg kgminus1) 149 169Source Aleshinloye Fertilizer Company Ibadan Nigeria

its nutrient availability The experimental plot was dividedinto three blocks each containing four beds Each bed sizewas 2m times 1m with 1m alley between plots and blocksSeedlings were transplanted at 2 weeks after transplantingon beds at spacing 50 cm times 20 cm The treatments consistedof three fertilizer types Grade A (compost amended withmineral fertilizer) Grade B (un-amended compost) NPK15-15-15 and control (no soil additive) Grades A and B arecommercial products of Aleshinloye Fertilizer Plant IbadanOyo State Nigeria The results of analyses of the fertilizerare summarized in Table 1 The fertilizers were applied byring method 5 cm radius and about 2 cm deep around theAmaranthus plant at the rate of 100 kgNha [6] Grades Aand B fertilizers were applied a week before transplantingwhile inorganic fertilizer was applied a day to transplantingEach vegetable bed contained thirty plants out of whichfive were randomly tagged for data collection Collectionof data commenced from 2 weeks after transplanting andwas done weekly till the fourth weeks First harvestingwas carried out on 5th March 2012 The experiment wasrepeated immediately after harvesting without any fertilizerapplication at the second planting in order to evaluate theresidual effects of the fertilizers The harvesting of vegetablesgrown in the pot without treatment was done on 16th April2012 (6 weeks after planting)

The data taken include plant height stem girth numberof leaves per plant fresh root weight and yield The datacollected were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA)and treatment means were separated by Duncan multiplerange test (DMRT)

3 Results and Discussion

Table 2 shows the result of the physical and chemical analysisof the soil studied The soil was clay and slightly acidic Thevalues of total nitrogen available phosphorus and potassiumof the experimental soil were below the critical values of thesoil of Guinea Savanna [17 18] this may be due to low soilorganic matter The low soil contents for the major nutrients




K 12Mg 32Na 19Ca 51







0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50


Hei

ght (

cm)

Treatment


369c

469a

404b

384b

235c

385a

288b

26b


0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180


Num

ber o

f lea

ves

Treatments


1026c

1612a

1495b

150b

763c

1296a

1052b

104b







Yield(tha)




NPK 70b 310c 176b


Grade A 59a 30a 75a


NPK 51b 153c 53b





4 Conclusion





Acknowledgment


References




























Journal of




Agronomy





Microbiology




Volume 2014



























K 12Mg 32Na 19Ca 51







0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50


Hei

ght (

cm)

Treatment


369c

469a

404b

384b

235c

385a

288b

26b


0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180


Num

ber o

f lea

ves

Treatments


1026c

1612a

1495b

150b

763c

1296a

1052b

104b







Yield(tha)




NPK 70b 310c 176b


Grade A 59a 30a 75a


NPK 51b 153c 53b





4 Conclusion





Acknowledgment


References




























Journal of




Agronomy





Microbiology




Volume 2014




























Yield(tha)




NPK 70b 310c 176b


Grade A 59a 30a 75a


NPK 51b 153c 53b





4 Conclusion





Acknowledgment


References




























Journal of




Agronomy





Microbiology




Volume 2014






































Journal of




Agronomy





Microbiology




Volume 2014
























research article effect of fertilizer types on the growth ...signi cantly to the amount of carotene,...

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