SOIL NUTRIENT DYNAMICS AS INFLUENCED BY ORGANOMINERAL FERTILIZERS AND TEA SEEDLING NUTRIENT UPTAKE IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Cocoa husk, cow dung, poultry droppings, siam weed - Chromolaena odorata and tea fluff are common farm wastes in Nigeria. They were used as manures as sole and in combination with inorganic fertilizer as organominerals (OMF), compared to NPK (5:1:1) a reference fertilizer, to supply 150 kg N ha-1 to potted tea seedlings in the open nursery space at Ibadan (lowland ecology) and Kusuku (highland ecology) of Nigeria. The manure based fertilizer treatments resulted in significantly (P less than 0.05) higher tea dry matter yield than the reference fertilizer - NPK (5:1:1) and between 44.5 146 % at Ibadan (lowland ecology) and 29.9 233 % at Kusuku (highland ecology) than the control (without fertilizer). Tea plant nutrient uptake, residual soil nutrient and organic matter build-up were more in the organic based fertilizers treatments compared to NPK.