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ABSTRACT
Leaching of nutrients is common especially, in the south-south Nigeria, specifically Ovia North East because of heavy rainfall. There have been reports on the increase in the vegetative development of crop with fertilizer application. For adequate vegetative production. nitrogen is essential and should ideally be given in the form of manure applied before planting. The study was carried out in 2023 at the Experimental Field of the Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Benin, Benin City. The area lies between latitude 6.4013754° and 5.6258° North and longitude 5.625880° and 6.40127231 East (Iloba and Ekrakene, 2008), to investigate the agronomic influence of poultry manure on the growth and yield of fluted pumpkin (Telferia occidentalies hook f). This experiment was laid out on a Randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four different levels and four replicates. This resulted in an average of 9 stands for each block resulting in 36 stands for each treatment level with a plant population of 144 stands. The treatments were four levels of poultry manure, i.e 00, 5, 15 and 25kg\ha which is equivalent to: control, 0.005, 0.015, 0.025 t\ha respectively. The plant parameters measured were; number of leaves, vine length and leaf area, stem girth and yield. After 8 weeks of the treatment, the pumpkin plants were harvested and soil samples collected from the treatment plots were analyzed for both chemical and physical properties; experiment showed increased pH in soils treated with poultry manure. the pH of the soil was strongly acid (5.45) before the experiment and remained strongly acid after the experiment. It was 5.45 in control plot and plot treated with 0.005 tonnes of poultry manure had ph of 5.68, in plots amended with 0.015tonnes of poultry manure had ph 5.83, in soil amended with 0.025 tonnes of poultry manure pH was 6.20.
