Influence of soil texture and compost on the early growth and nutrient uptake of Moringa oleifera Lam

Soil is the main reservoir of water and nutrients, and thus controls the availability of most essential plant nutrients for crop growth and establishment. Therefore, a study was conducted at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria to investigate the effects of soil texture and compost on early growth of Moringa oleifera (M. oleifera). The experiment was a split plot laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The main treatment comprises of three soil texture; sand, loamy sand, and clay while the sub-plot treatment was compost at four rates of 0, 2.5, 5 and 10 tha-1 per 10 kg of soil and NPK 15:15:15 at the rate of 90 kg Nha-1. Data on plant height, number of leaves, stem diameter were measured at 2 week interval for 10 weeks. Results showed that Moringa plant produced in loamy sand was superior in plant height, number of leaves and stem girth irrespective of compost applied. At 10 weeks after sowing, fresh shoot weights/pot was 73.3, 31.7, 30.3 g respectively for loamy sand, clay and sand. M. oleifera N uptake in loamy sand was significantly (p<0.05) greater by 57 and 50%, respectively, than sand and clay. P uptake was significantly higher at 5 ton ha-1 than the control and other treatments. The study concluded that, combination of loamy sand and 5 ton ha-1 of compost was suitable for the early growth of M. oleifera.