Effect of Green Manure on the Early Growth of Milicia excelsa (Welw C.C. Berg) Seedlings

Abstract

This study examined the effects of green manure on the early growth performance of Milicia excelsa seedlings. The experiment was set up in the screen house of the Federal College of Forestry, Ibadan, and lasted for twelve weeks. The leaves of Gliricidia sepium harvested were air-dried and ground to powder for ease of application and fast decomposition. Five different levels of G. sepium leaf powder at 0g, 10g, 20g, 30g, and 40g were separately and thoroughly mixed with 2kg of topsoil. The seeds were sown into a germination basket containing topsoil and watered twice daily. Germination was noticed from the third day and transplanting of seedlings into polythene pots was done after the mixture of green manure into topsoil had been allowed to stand for two weeks. The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design (CRD) with five treatments and each was replicated three times. Two weeks after planting, the following variables were assessed weekly for 12 weeks: Plant height, collar diameter, leaf area, and leaf production. The result obtained shows that T₂ (20g of Gliricidia sepium leaf powder) had the best performance in height, leaf production, stem diameter, and leaf area with mean values of 3.82±0.05cm, 7.42±0.16, 1.18±0.32mm, and 115.62±0.25cm² respectively while the least performance was recorded in T₀ (2kg of topsoil) in height, leaf production, stem diameter and leaf area with mean values of 2.32±0.21 cm, 4.11^c±0.16 mm, 0.68±0.22, and 90.16.±0.12 cm² respectively. The analysis of variance (ANOVA result revealed that there was a significant difference among the treatments at a 5% level of probability. The study recommends the use of green manure +  topsoil mixture for better performance of Milicia excelsa seedlings.