Comparative Growth Response of Maize on Amended Sediment from the Odaw River and Cultivated Soil

Pot experiment to determine the agronomic performance of maize was carried out in a randomized complete block with nine pots per block and three replicates using sediment from Odaw River and soil from cultivated field in Ghana.

Ason, B.; Ababio, F. O.; Boateng, E.; Yangyuoru, M.

2015

English

Pot experiment to determine the agronomic performance of maize was carried out in a randomized complete block with nine pots per block and three replicates using sediment from Odaw River and soil from cultivated field in Ghana. The sediment only (BS), soil only (S) and soil-sediment composite (S+BS) were each amended with poultry manure (PM), cow dung (CD) and biochar (BC), then maize (Obatanpa variety) grown for 45 days. Plant height, leaf length, girth and width were measured weekly. The dredged sediment from the Odaw River was found to be good and quite similar to the soil from the cultivated field in terms of organic matter, organic carbon and macro nutrients. For the sediment, the heavy metals comprising of Fe, Pb, Zn, Cu and Cd had concentrations (mg/l) 3.48, <0.005, 0.073, 0.010 and <0.002 respectively. For the soil only the heavy metal concentration of Fe, Pb, Zn, Cu and Cd had concentrations (mg/l) 7.13, <0.005, 0.348, 0.067 and <0.002 respectively. Maize performed well on the amended soil than the amended sediment from the Odaw River. The fresh shoot weight of maize grown on the cultivated soil at the end of the 45 days period was between 101.8 g and 182.3 g and that of the sediment was 56.0 g and 131.0 g, respectively. The soil-sediment amended treatment showed an enhanced growth but slightly lower than the soil amended treatments at the end of the growth period. Individual growth parameters measured at the end of the experiment also showed growth pattern which followed the overall growth order. Heavy metal concentrations in both the sediment and the cultivated soil were within tolerable limits, though the soil from the cultivated field had higher concentrations.