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Title OBSERVATIONS ON PALM BUNCH ASH EFFECTS ON COWPEA GROWTH.AND CHARACTERISTICS OF A GHANA ACID SOIL
Full text http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/930
Date 1993
Author(s) SAFO, E. Y.; ANKOMAH, A.B.; BRANDFORD-ARTHUR, J.
Abstract Oil palm bunch ash is a locally available material in Ghana with the potential of being used as fertilizer. A pot-experiment was conducted in a rootless open-air planthouse to study the effects of palm bunch ash on cowpea dry matter yield, tissue nutrient content and soil characteristics. Airdry palm bunch ash (with pH 10.6 and 26% K, 6.8% Ca, 5.8%o Mg, 4.0% P, on ovendry weight basis) was applied to cowpea in Ofin soil (a loamy sand, classified as aquic Ustifluvent) at the rates 0.0 (T0), 0.42. 0.83, 1 .67, 2.50, 3.33 and 4.17 g kg-1 soil (T6). Plants were harvested 41 days after planting and shoot and root dry matter (DM) yields were measured. Whole plant tops were analysed for elemental contents. Ash application resulted in significant increases in DM yields steadily from T0 to T6. ShootDM increased from 5.6 (at T0 ) to 30.3 g plant ( at T6), and root DM from 0.9 ((T0) to 3.3g per plant. A palm bunch ash application of 0.83 g kg-1 soil was found to be optimum for the growth of cowpea in the Ofin soil. The study showed that oil palm bunch ash has properties that can be exploited as a fertilizer particularly on acid soils.
Publisher KNUST
Identifier 0855-0395
Repository Kumasi - Kwame Nkrumah University
Added to C-A: 2010-02-23;08:57:27