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ABSTRACT
This pot experiment was conducted at the Department of Soil science and Land Management Faculty of Agriculture, University of Benin Nigeria to examine the residual effect of anaerobic digestate of cattle rumen, poultry manure, mycorrhizal and NPK fertilizer on the soil bacteria and fungi populations, as well as growth performance of tomato plant. The experiment was laid out in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with seven (7) treatments including control which was replicated three times. The treatments include: TDP50 =Treatment + Digestate (50%) + Poultry manure (50%); TDP100= Treatment + Digestate (100%) + Poultry manure (100%); TDM = Treatment + Digestate + Mycorrhiza; TNPK = Treatment + NPK; TP = Treatment+ Poultry manure; TD = Treatment + Digestate; TC = Treatment + Control. Data were collected on growth parameters from 3-15 weeks and soil samples were also analyzed before the experiment.
The results showed that there was a general increase in plant height. Plant height increase with increase in weeks irrespective of the treatment and at 15 weeks after planting, TDP50 had the highest plant height (74.00cm) while TNPK had the lowest plant height (43.33cm). The highest number of leaves was observed in TP (52) and the lowest was observed in TC (10). TDP50 and TDP100 had the highest fruit during the experiment which are 14 and 16 respectively. The highest stem girth were observed in TDP100 while TNPK recorded the least value of stem girth. TD had the highest bacteria (5.45 X 103 cfu/ml) and fungi (5.35X 103 cfu/ml) count in soil. The higher performance of crops with organic amendment in all the treatment shows better responses to the treatments than for TNPK and control. The best result was observed in pots treated with combination of digestate + poultry manure which has high residual benefit in bacteria and fungi population, plant growth and yield when compared with other treatments.
