Complementary Effects Of Palm Bunch Ash And Poultry Manure On Soil Acidity And Yield Of Mungbean (Vigna Radiata (L.) Wilczek) At Umudike Area Of Abia State Nigeria.

ABSTRACT

The experiment was conducted at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike Green house to ascertain the Complementary effect of Palm Bunch Ash (PBA) and Poultry Manure (PM) on soil acidity and yield of munghean (Vignciadala). The Objectives of the study were to determine the effect of Palm Bunch Ash (PBA) and Poultry Manure (PM) on soil properties especially soil acidity, to determine the best rate of application in tons per hectare, to determine the effect of Palm bunch Ash and Poultry Manure on mungbean yield and yield parameters. The treatments used were as follows: 01/ha, 6tlha of Palm Bunch Ash, 6tlha of Poultry Manure (PM), 4tlha of Palm Bunch Ash and 2tlha of Poultry Manure combined, 4t/ha of Poultry Manure and of Palm Bunch Ash combined, 3t/ha of Palm Bunch Ash and 3tlha of Poultry Manure combined, with three (3) replicates. These gave a total of Eighteen (18) treatments. The experimental design used was Completely Randomized Design. The following plant parameters were measured; plant height, number of leaves, plant branching, number of root branching, root length, grain weight (g), number of grains and number of nodules. Soil parameters determined include: soil pH, exchangeable acidity, hydrogen and aluminum, exchangeable calcium, potassium, sodium and magnesium, available phosphorus, total nitrogen while the following were calculated; percentage base saturation, percentage aluminum, percentage calcium saturation, total exchangeable bases, effective cation exchange capacity and calcium : aluminum ratio. All the data were subjected to the Analysis of variance (ANOVA) using the GENSTAT package and the differences between the treatments means were separated by the least significant differences.