Effect of Npk, Mg, Biochar. Compost and Oil - Palm Waste in Prenursery Oil - Palm Seedling Production

The effectiveness of organic fertilizer materials (decomposed Empty Fruit Bunch, EFB: Sunflower Compost, SFC; Palm-Oil Mill-Effluent, POME, Palm Kernel Cake, PKC and Biochar) for the production of oil-palm seedlings at the pre-nursery (four-month stage) were evaluated, using NPK Mg 12:12:17:2 as reference. In an initial pot experiment (employing 2 kg soil samples per 2.5 x 25 cm2 polythene bag), reference fertilizer was applied at 0, 6, 12, 18 and 24 g/pot (in three equal doses) to determine the optimum rate needed for the application of EFB, SFC, POME, PKC and Biochar by the polynomial regression (y = a + b1x + b2x2) analysis. In the two experiments, treatments were replicated three times in randomized complete block design. Plant height, stem girth, leaf area and number of leaves were measured at 4, 8, 12 and 16 weeks after planting (WAP). The amounts of biomass produced (a plant vigor indicator) were also determined after 16 weeks of growth. Oil-palm seedlings responded optimally to NPK Mg at 8 g/pot while significant (p≤0.05) differences in treatment means were observed at 12 and 16 WAP. Results further indicated that 10, 11, 13, 17 and 52 g/pot of EFB, SFC, POME, PKC and Biochar were the respective amounts required to supply optimum nutrition to the seedlings. The seedlings treated with SFC, EFB, POME and PKC performed better (with respect to plant height, stem girth, leaf area, number of leaves and dry biomass weight) than NPK Mg 12:12:17:1, Biochar and Control (untreated) plants. It was evident that the organic fertilizer materials could be used for the production of pre-nursery oil-palm seedlings instead of the usually expensive, inorganic NPK Mg 12:12:17:2 fertilizer.