Global Journal of Science Frontier Research, D: Agriculture and Veterinary, Volume 22 Issue 1

Table 6: Maize plant height (cm) as influenced by fertilizer types and mode of fertilizer application in the screen house in 2020 cropping seasons Mode of fertilizer Application Fertilizer solid in screen Fertilizer spray in screen Mean Plant height WAP/ Treatment A B C D A B C D PLTH2 15.70ab 15.90a 12.51ed 15.63a 13.20a 11.48ab 12.32a 10.59ab PLTH4 38.37ab 38.63ab 31.47c-g 37.00a-e 33.07a 28.00ab 30.00ab 26.00ab PLTH6 84.57a-g 84.67ab 70.77d 88.42a 76.82a 61.33a-c 67.33a-c 58.12bc PLTH8 155.27a 155.33a 128.40d-e 145.00a-c 133.67a 114.33ab 123.00ab 108.80ab Source; Field analysis, 2020 Mean having the same letter across the rows indicate no significant difference using Duncan’s multiple range tests at 5% probability level. Treatments are; A= 100N+40P+30K; B= 120N+50P+40K; C=70N+30P+20K; D=90kg NPK. WAP = weeks after planting, PLTH =plant height e) Maize Grain Yield i. Grain yield on the basis of different nutrients levels Table 7 shows that after the control of 90kg inorganic fertilizer, treatment B =120N+50P+40K produced the highest total grain yield (4.76 t/ha and2.81 t/ha) on the field and screen house respectively, this was followed closely by treatment A = 100N+40P+30K with (4.50 t/ha on field and 2.67 t/ha screen house) while treatment C= 70N+30P+20K had the least yield (4.43t/ha on field and 2.72t/ha) in screen house). This finding shows that vegetative growth and grain yield in maize increase with increased nutrient application (karasus, 2012) ii. Grain yield on the basis of mode of fertilizer application Table 7 also shows that, the maize grain yield differed significantly (P< 0.05) among the different modes of fertilizer application. The maize grain yields under fertilizer solid on the field and in the screen, were significantly higher than the maize grain yields under fertilizer spray on both sites. This finding agrees with Machado et al., (2011) who explained that since organic fertilizer releases nutrients slowly, its application as spray, might encourage washing off by rain even before the nutrients are released and absorbed by plants. iii. Differences in yield of field and screen Comparatively, the maize grain yields under fertilizer solid and fertilizer spray in the screen are significantly(p<0.05)lower than the yields from the field(Table 5).The implication is that foliar application of organic fertilizer had no influence on yield of maize. Incorporated fertilizer applied a week before sowing had superior performance on maize grain yield. Reason for this could be because of the serious lodging that occurred on the different treatment pots in the screen house. Serious lodging according to Symons et al., (2008) and Bänziger et al., (2006) occurs as a result of etiolation (weak stems) of the maize stands due to water stress or abiotic stress such as Nitrogen. When this happens, maize cobs are rendered susceptible to rodent attack and decay which could reduce grain yield. (Ajala et al., 2018), Xu et al. (2017) and Bänziger et al. (2006)also reported reduced yield in the screen house compared to the open field. Table 7: Maize grain yield (T/Ha) under different treatments and modes of fertilizer application on the field and in the screen house Mode of fertilizer Application Fertilizer solid on field Fertilizer spray on field Mean yield (t/ha)per Treatment A B C D A B C D Field 4.5 de 4.76 bc 4.43 def 4.87 ab 2.67efg 2.81 ef 2.72 efg 3.33 b Screen House 1.92bc 1.94bc 1.86bc 2.1ab 1.43f-h 1.49f-g 1.45f-h 2.1ab Source; Field survey 2020 i. Differences in yields of control and experimental treatments Quantitatively, the control- inorganic NPK fertilizer produced higher yield than each of the three organic fertilizer treatments both as solid or spray, on the field or in the screen house. However, statistically, there was no significant difference between grain yield produced from the recommended 90kg/ha NPK Potential of Bio-Organic Mix as an Alternative to Inorganic Fertilizer in Maize Production in Africa © 2022 Global Journals 1 Year 2022 16 Global Journal of Science Frontier Research Volume XXII Issue ersion I VI ( D )