Nursery performance and early growth of two Moringa oleifera accessions grown under varied manure levels

The study was conducted at the Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management Nursery Site, Federal University Dutsin-Ma, Katsina State, Nigeria to evaluate nursery performance and early growth of two Moringa oleifera accessions grown under varied manure levels. The treatments included two Moringa oleifera accessions (Katsina-Nigeria and Maradi-Niger), two manure types (Poultry and Small ruminant) and rate of application (0 t ha-1, 4.27 t ha-1, 8.53 t ha-1 and 17.10 t ha-1). These were laid out as 2 x 2 x 4 factorial in a randomized complete block design, replicated four times. The results obtained showed that seeds of Maradi-Niger accession had the highest cumulative emergence percentage (94%), mean daily emergence and number of emerged seedlings. Plant height, collar diameter and number of leaves were higher in Maradi-Niger accession than in Katsina-Nigeria accession. The dry matter yield showed that Maradi-Niger accession had the highest (3634 t ha-1) than Katsina-Nigeria accession (3172 t ha-1). In general, the application of 4.27 t ha-1, 8.53 t ha-1 and 17.10 t ha-1 of poultry manure to the soil medium ensured consistent increase in the plant height, number of leaves and collar diameter. The control treatment (0 t ha-1) had the least values of all the morphological characteristics. The 17.10 t ha-1 poultry manure treatment gave significant increase (p<0.05) in the plant growth vigour. The application of 17.10 t ha-1 poultry manure also gave the highest values of dry matter yield followed by 8.53 t ha-1, 4.27 t ha-1 and 0 t ha-1, respectively.Keywords: Soil pH, treatment, manure, plant height, collar diameter, number of leav