Effects of Different Potting Media on the Germination and Early Growth of Newbouldia laevis. (P. Beauv.) Seem.

The research was conducted at the screen house of the Department of Forestry and Wildlife, Faculty of Agriculture, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra state, Nigeria. The study was carried out from January to May 2021 to access the effect of different potting media on germination and early growth of Newbodia laevis.

Treatments were laid out in a Complete Randomize Design (CRD) with four replications. The germination parameters measured were days to germination, germination period and germination percentage while the growth variables measured includes plant height, collar diameter and number of leaves. The potting media used were T1 (topsoil and cow dung), T2 (topsoil and goat dung), T3 (topsoil and poultry dropping), T4(topsoil and sawdust), T5 control (topsoil only).

Data collected were subjected to R software, using the following packages: plyr, car, gvlma, one-way tests, user friendly science, ggplot. Results obtained indicated that T1 had the highest germination percentage (85%) followed by T2 and T3 with germination percentages of 82% and 80% respectively. T4 had the poorest germination percentage (60%). The results also showed that the treatment had direct effect on the seedling early growth; the highest mean collar girth was observed in T1 with 1.85 cm while the least was observed in T4 with 0.72 m. The highest mean height was observed in T2 with 22.15 cm while the least was observed in T4 with 7.23 cm. Also, the highest mean number of leaves was observed in T2 with 21leaves while the least was observed in T4 with 7 leaves. Based on the findings of these experiments it is recommended that for maximum growth and optimum germination of Newbodia laevis, T1 and T2 should be used, sawdust had poor germination and growth performance and thereby is not recommended for the early growth of Newbodia laevis seedlings.