ABSTRACT

The effect of organic amendments, cow dung (CD), cassava peel (CP), and cow dung and cassava peel combination (CD +CP), on soil physico — chemical properties such as percent organic carbon (OC%), percent base saturation (BS%) effective cation exchange capacity (ECEC), electrical conductivity (EC), exchangeable acidity (EA), soil pH,available phosphorus (Avail. p), total nitrogen (TN), and N-mineralization, and germination percent of maize were assessed in the green house in Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike. The amendments were applied at the rates of 0%, 1%, 5% and 10% to 3kg soil which corresponds to Og, 30g, 150g and 300g respectively. The treatments were replicated three times, and incubated for a total period of one week before sampling for the physicochemical parameters. Data were subjected for analysis of variance using 4x3 factorial in a CRD, significant means were separated using FLSD 005 The result showed statistically significant (p= 0.05)effects on electrical conductivity, effective cation exchange capacity, calcium, and sodium of the amended soils, while the other physicochemical properties studied were not significant statistically. Spearman Rank correlation between germination percent and some chemical parameters indicated that OC%, and N-mineralization had low, but high correlation coefficient with germination percent, while avail. P had a high, but inverse relationship with germination percent, indicating that %OC and N-mineralization increases resulted in more of the maize seed germinating within 7days period of assessment, while the avail. P did not positively effect the germination rate of maize.