SOIL PROPERTIES AND PERFORMANCE OF LAGOS SPINACH (Celosia argentea ) AS AFFECTED BY COMPOST MADE WITH Trichoderma asperellum

Abstract

This study evaluated the effect of two plant materials (Panicum maximum and Tridax procumbens) composted with cow dung, with or without Trichoderma asperellum inoculation on soil properties and yield of celosia in 2014 and 2015. The treatments were tridax-based compost without Trichoderma (TBC), tridaxbased compost with Trichoderma (TTBC), panicum-based compost without Trichoderma (PBC), panicum-based compost with Trichoderma (TPBC) and control (no compost). All compost were applied at 240 kgN/ha. The design was RCBD with three replicates and data analyzed using ANOVA at α0.05. Results showed that compost enhanced growth, nutrient uptake and yield of celosia. In 2014, highest fresh weight (57.09 t/ha) was obtained from plant treated with TPBC, which compared favourably with TTBC TTBC (57.00 t/ha) but significantly higher than TBC (43.85 t/ha) and PBC (47.32 t/ha) while control gave the least significant value (20 t/ha). A similar trend was obtained in 2015. This infers that plants that received inoculated compost gave better yield compared to uninoculated compost. Post-cropping soil chemical analysis revealed that compost improved soil N, P, K and organic C. This shows that Trichoderma inoculated compost could be better than the uninoculated compost for celosia production in an Alfisol. Received