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ABSTRACT
The study was carried out to investigate Nitrogen availability in soils of an oil palm plantation infested with different weed types in Ekasa Village, Ovia North East Local Govt area of Edo State, Nigeria. Soil samples were collected at two different depths (0-15cm and 15-30cm) with three replicates each, at four different weeds infested areas covering at least one acre each. The weeds investigated are: Spear grass (SR), Guinea grass (GR), white weed or goat weed (WR) and Chromolaena odorata (Siam weed) (CR). The results showed that the soil of the plantation is loamy sand which is moderately acidic. The portions with GR and CR have high organic carbon content at 0-15cm but moderate organic carbon content at 15-30cm while the portions with WR and SR have moderate organic carbon contents at both depths. The nitrogen content in the CR portion is the highest (1.180g/kg) followed by portion with GR (1.150) at 0-15 cm depth while the portion with WR is the lowest (0.775g/kg). The 15-30cm depths also followed same trend. There is significant difference between the mean value of nitrogen of the portion with WR (0.5453g/kg) and CR (0.9111g/kg). There are no differences among WR,SR and GR nitrogen values. Also, there are no differences among CR,SR and GR nitrogen values. The results also showed that the portion with CR has the highest reserve of organic carbon and nutrients reserve followed by GR while WR has the lowest.
