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| Maize Growth Response on Soil Enhanced with SMS under Different Irrigation Interval. |
Emeka Chinwendu, Bright Nweke, Achinike Okogbule-Wonodi
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Abstract:
Maize is an important crop for human nutrition, development and raw material for industrial production. The production of maize has recorded tremendous increase in the Nigeria economy, despite the economic, nutritional and medicinal importance, the production of this crop in Nigeria is still at the subsistence level. Thus, in order to boost the nation's economy and also reduce food scarcity, farmers should desist from over-reliance on rainfed agriculture. This study was conducted to determine the response of the growth and yield parameters of maize on soil amended with mushroom compost when subjected to different irrigation intervals. The study was conducted at the research and demonstration farm of Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. 2000g of mushroom compost was uniformly incorporated manually into treatment plots. The treatment combination were SMS with no irrigation, SMS with 3 days irrigation interval, SMS with 5 Days irrigation interval, SMS with 7 Days irrigation interval and control plot with no irrigation and no SMS which represents the natural conditions of the soil. Complete Randomized Design (CRD) with three replicates was utilized. Three stands of maize were planted on the subplot at spacing of 1m x 1m. The plant parameters measured were plant height, stem girth and yield. The results revealed that the highest average plant height was obtained from 5 days irrigation interval plot (2.116m), followed by 3 days irrigation interval, (1.931m), 7 days irrigation interval (1.902m), SMS with zero irrigation interval(1.702m), no SMS with zero irrigation (1.582m), stem girth and yield followed same trend. The highest mean yield(4200kg/ha) was obtained from 5 days irrigation interval subplot, followed by 7 days irrigation interval (3,800kg/ha), 3 days irrigation interval(3,000kg/ha), SMS with no irrigation interval (2,800kg/ha) and the lowest was the control plot (2,300kg/ha). There was highly significant difference at 1% and 5% level between the plant growth parameters. On the whole, the results showed that 5 days irrigation interval and SMS significantly impacted on the response of growth and yield parameters of maize on a sandy loam soil
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