Effect Of Organic Manures On The Early Growth Of Moringa Oleifera Plant On The Nursery

CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Moringa (Moringa oleifera) widely known as moringa, is a tropical crop and the most cultivated species of the family moringaceae. Moringa oleifera is the most widely cultivated because of its high nutritional, medicinal, agricultural, domestic and environmental purposes. Moringa plants are easily established either by cuttings or seeds. Seeds are either sown directly in the field at the onset of the rainy season or planted in nurseries. Nursery operations involve raising seedlings in different media. Nursery potting media influence quality of seedlings produced thereof (Agbo et al., 2016) which subsequently influences their establishment and productivity in the field (Becker et al., 2015). The traditional nursery potting mediumin Nigeria is top soil dug from farmland and amended with poultry manure. Digging agricultural soils not only renders the land unproductive for cropping, but also makes it prone to erosion and other forms of degradation (Baiyeri, 2013). Moringa is a fast-growing, deep-rooted dicotyledonous plant with tuberous tap root system. It is drought-tolerant and can thrive well in poor soils with little or no fertilization. Moringa oleifera plants can be irrigated during the dry season but should not be water-logged to avoid root rot. The trees can grow upto a height of 15m. The leaves are tri-pinnate, usually 25-60cm long. The plants flower about three times a year and produce average of 17 tonnes of seeds/ha/annumin Nigeria (Ndubuaku et al., 2016). The flowers are pollinated by bees. The seeds have very short dormancy period and can germinate promptly immediately after harvest. The seeds germinate within five to tend ays of planting and the seedlings have short nursery life span (four to eight weeks) because of the fast growing nature of the plants (Fuglie, 2011).The seeds lose their viability within one year of storage. Moringa can also be propagated using maturestem cuttings. The cuttings produce roots within two weeks of planting without any rooting hormone.The leaves are good sources of protein, minerals, vitamins, beta-carotene, amino acids and variousphenolic compounds (Fuglie, 2011). It is environmentally – friendly because of its ability to absorb a lot of the atmospheric carbondioxide for its all-year-round leaf production (evergreen plant).

Germination and seedling growth of moringa depends on environmental and genetic factors. Moringa seeds have no dormancy period, so they can be planted as soon as they are matured and will retain the ability to germinate for the period of one year.

1.2 Statement of the problem
Recently, attention has been directed towards organic manure because of the rising cost of inorganic fertilizers coupled with their inability to give the soil the desired sound health (Oyedeji et al., 2014). In a related literature, effects of compost applied on growth parameters were studied (Asante et al., 2012, Huda et al., 2016), but the application of different amounts has not yet been investigated. The use of organic manure to fertilize moringa in the field is increasing, but very few studies have been carried out to evaluate the effect of this fertilizer in the nursery. This inadequacy makes it difficult to make any recommendation to farmers on the quantity and type of organic manure to apply.

1.3 Aim and Objectives of the study
The main aim of this seminar is to study the effect of organic manures on the early growth of moringa oleifera plant on the nursery. The objectives are:

• To study the efficacy of using organic manure on the early growth of moringaoleifera plant.
• To study the benefit of organic manure
• To study the benefit of organic manure
• To performed an experiment that determine the effect of organic manures on the early growth of Moringa Oleifera plants

1.4 Significance of the study
This study will serve as a means of understanding the advantages of using organic manure and reason why organic manure is chosen over fertilizers.