Abstract

This experiment was established to investigate the comparative effect of organic and inorganic soil amendments on the growth of cashew seedlings. Cashew nuts were planted in potting medium filled with well drained loamy soil and placed in a screenhouse. Cashew seeds with 8 to 9 g weight were selected and viability test was carried out using Tetrazolium test (TZ) viability test to ascertain how viable the seeds were before sown in a potting medium. After two weeks of germination, amended with the following treatments at various levels; NPK 15:15:15, composted cow dung, composted poultry dropping, sunshine organo-mineral, pig manure and control (No fertilizer). Complete randomized design (CRD) was used for the experimental layout with three replicates. Agronomic parameters in the study include; stem girth, plant height, number of leaves, leaf length and width. Cashew seedlings were more responsive to the animal sourced fertilizers (organic manure) compared to the inorganic (NPK 15, 15, 15) and control (No fertilizer). Composted poultry droppings fertilizer (PDF) showed higher significant differences on stem girth, plant height and cow dung gave significant difference on number of leaves from 2 to 8 weeks of growth after treatments application, sunshine organomineral and composted poultry droppings fertilizer gave higher significant differences at 8 weeks on leaf length and width respectively.

Key words: Cashew nut (Anacardium occidentale L.), seedlings, organo-mineral, soil amendments.