Growth response of pre-nursery oil palm seedungs in an ultisol amended with oil palm mill by -products

• Main Author: Chang, Yin San
• Format: Academic Exercise
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: S Agriculture (General)
• Online Access: https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/18589/1/Growth%20response%20of%20oil%20palm%20seedungs%20at%20pre%20nursery%20stage%20in%20an%20oxisol%20amended%20with%20oil%20palm%20mill.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/18589/

Growth response of pre-nursery oil palm seedungs in an ultisol amended with oil palm mill by -products This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of oil palm mill by-products on growth of oil palm seedlings in a sandy soil. There were 3 treatments including the control, each replicated 6 times in randomized complete block design (RCBD). The treatments were: (i) dried decanter cake (T1); (ii) empty fruit bunch with palm oil mill effluent biochar (T2); and (iii) palm oil mill effluent (T3). T1 was the control as it is the standard practice of IJM Plantations Berhad (IJMP) where this experiment was conducted. Plant height, stem girth, dry weight of shoots and roots, total nitrogen of leaves and roots, total leaf phosphorus, soil pH, soil organic matter content, soil total nitrogen, soil available phosphorus and cation exchange capacity were recorded and all data analyzed using one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) at 5% Significance level. T2 resulted in significantly higher plant height (22.99 cm) compared to T1 (19.17 cm) and T3 (21.95 cm) at 3 months after planting. There were no significant differences in stem girth where the highest mean stem girth was for T2 (4.51 mm), followed by T3 (4.34 mm) and T1 resulted in the lowest stem girth (4.24 mm). There were no significant effects on the dry weight of shoots and roots. The highest mean shoot dry weight was for T2 (1.47 g), followed by T3 (0.98 g) and T1 resulted in the lowest dry weight of shoots (0.93 g). The highest mean dry weight of roots was for T1 and T2 (0.42 g) and T3 resulted in the lowest dry weight of roots (0.34 g). T1 resulted in higher leaf total nitrogen, which was 1.99% as compared to T2 (1.72%) and T3(1.87%). Root total nitrogen was significantly higher in Tl (2.11%) compared to T2 (0.03%) and T3 (1.12%). T1 resulted in significantly higher total P of leaves (13.32 mg kg-I) compared to T2 (9.38 mg kg-I) and T3 (10.38 mg kg-1). Soil pH was significantly higher in T2 (6.61) compared to T1 and T3 (5.35). There were significant differences in effects between T1, T2 and T3 on soil organic matter and total organic carbon. T2 resulted in the highest soil organic matter (1.88%) compared to T1 (1.32%) and T3 (0.84%). T2 resulted in higher soil total nitrogen (0.13%) compared to T1 (0.12%) and T1 (0.08%). Soil available phosphorus was significantly higher for T1 (373.64 mg kg-l) compared to T2 (225.41 mg kg-I) and T1 (224.22 mg kg-l). There was no Significant difference between Tl, T2 and T3 for soil cation exchange capacity. T1 decreased the soil cation exchange capacity at 3 months after planting by 70.73% whereas T2 and T3 increased the soil cation exchange capacity by 59.09% and 46.15% respectively. The results indicate that the sandy soil treated with EFB-POME biochar improved the growth rate of the pre-nursery oil palm seedlings. However, sandy soil amended with POME enhanced the soil fertility.