Early Growth Response of Persea americana Seedlings to Interaction of Soil Collected under Tree Plantations with Fertilizer Combinations

Abstract

The greatest problem of most tree species is to have good planting material or seedlings, and one of the means to achieve this is by fertilization of the seedlings. This study was aimed at determining the influence of organic and inorganic and organomineral fertilizers on the early growth response of Persea Americana in interaction with soils collected under four forest plantations of Terminalia superba, Gmelina arborea, Tectona grandis and natural forest using standard methods. Plant height, stem diameter and number of leaves were assessed at two weeks intervals starting from two weeks after transplanting while plant dry matter yield was determined at the end of the experiment. Data collected were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) while means were separated using Duncan’s multiple Range test at 5% level of probability. Results showed that at 4, 6 and 10 WAT, there was a significant increase in plant height at interaction of S1 and T4 (Terminalia superba  Ikija and FRIN compost @ 50 kg N/ha) with the highest height of 50.33cm while the control had the least height of 19.22cm. Also, at 16 WAP, the interaction of S2 and T5 gave the biggest stem diameter of 10.50mm, while the S1and T5 gave the smallest diameter of 2.14mm. S4 performed better than the other the soils from other sources while the effect of the amendment on the leaves showed that T3 gave the best leaves dry matter yield of 10.19g. It was concluded that the combination of S4 and T5 was found to be the best soil type and treatment for growth of Persea Americana. However, T5 and T3 are recommended as the best fertilizer to grow Persea americana with soils under the selected plantations as shown in this study.