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ABSTRACT
The study undertook the optimization of nutrients influencing the growth of oil palm seedlings in soil amended with fly ash and sludge.
Fresh POMS and FA samples were collected from Okomu Oil Palm PLC, Udo Ovia South East Local Government Area, Edo State. The soil sample was collected from Udo community about 2 km from Okomu Oil Palm PLC. The fresh POMS was naturally stabilized for 25 days, 50 days, 75 days and 100 days. The fresh POMS, stabilized POMS, soil and FA were charactarised for physicochemical properties using standard methods. The 100 days stabilized POMS (being the best stabilization period) and FA were optimized using response surface methodology in order to determine the optimum condition for the amendments. Pot experiments were performed to check the response of the optimized amendments.
The results from this study show that natural stabilization of sludge up to 100 days can be very effective in soil amendment without any detrimental effect on the roots of oil palm seedlings as compared with artificial stabilization. The optimization results showed that an increase in the mass of FA and a decrease in the mass of POMS result in a decrease in the growth response of the oil palm seedlings. The responses were best with increase in the mass of POMS and a decrease in the mass of FA. Therefore an indirect relationship exists between the masses of FA and POMS. An empirical quadratic polynomial model was developed to relate the interaction of the POMS and FA. The strong linear correlation between the observed and predicted responses shows that the model reasonably predicted the process using a quadratic polynomial. The maximum plant height of 70.4 cm at 15 % soil amendment was obtained at a mass of 1.46 kg FA and 8.54 kg POMS for the 180 days planting period. Results from this study shows that co application of FA and POMS can be very effective at a maximum of 14.6 % FA and minimum of 85.4 % POMS by mass.
