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Influence of organic mulches on soil physico-chemical properties and maize (zea mays l.) crop performance

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dc.contributor.author Ampofo, Edward A.
dc.date.accessioned 2021-03-18T10:21:33Z
dc.date.available 2021-03-18T10:21:33Z
dc.date.issued 2018-02
dc.identifier.issn 23105496
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/5053
dc.description 17p;, ill. en_US
dc.description.abstract Application of organic mulching is soil management practice that seeks to improve soil moisture conservation, increase soil fertility and improve crop production. The study was carried out to quantify the effect of different organic mulches on some soil properties at three crop stages and maize production under coastal savanna condition. Four treatments of mulch; maize stover (MS), dry grass straw (GS), palm frond (PF) mulches at 3 Mg ha-1 each and no-mulch (NM) (control) with three replications were laid out in a complete randomized block design. After two consecutive cropping seasons, different organic mulches had no significant effect on the examined soil properties at the seed emergence stage. However, at both tasseling and harvest stages, the differences of bulk density, total porosity, organic carbon content and macro-nutrients (NPK) among the treatments were significant and were in the order of GS  MS  PF  NM. The germination rate was in the order of NM (91.0%) > MS (89.9%) > GS (87.9%) > PF (86.8%). The effect of mulches on both the plant height and the LAI was in the order of GS  MS  PF  NM. The increase in grain yield over the control were GS= 23 %, MS= 16 % and PF =15 % while that of the WUE relative to the control were 155 %, 122 % and 58 % for GS, MS and PF respectively. Dry grass mulch could be used to improve soil properties and achieve higher maize production in the study area en_US
dc.language.iso en en_US
dc.publisher University of Cape Coast en_US
dc.subject Organic mulch en_US
dc.subject Crop production en_US
dc.subject Soil properties en_US
dc.subject Maize growth en_US
dc.subject Grain yield en_US
dc.title Influence of organic mulches on soil physico-chemical properties and maize (zea mays l.) crop performance en_US
dc.type Article en_US


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