Effect of Soil Priming on Degraded Forest Soil and Early Growth of Garcinia kola (Heckel) in Derived Savannah Belt, Delta State, Nigeria
Abstract
Deforestation poses a serious challenge to tropical soil fertility and complicates the regeneration of degraded forests with recalcitrant indigenous tree species. Soil priming with aquatic ecosystem-enriched matters, for seeds and cytoplasmic activities, supports, offers a nutrient imbuing technique in the tropics. This study investigated the priming capacity of degraded forest soils with diverse aquatic ecosystem sands for the early growth of Garcinia kola. Flood Plain (FP), River Sand (RS) and Degraded forest (DS) soils were processed, analyzed for physico-chemical properties and five (5) primed soil types of 25-75, 40-60, 50-50, 75-25, and 75-30 volume/volume with (FP-DS) and (RS-DS) bases formulated to contrast 100 v/v FP, RS and DS for Garcinia kola growth. Growth characteristics of seedlings were monitored, and collected data subjected to analysis of variance, while significant means were separated with the Duncan Multiple Range Test at 5%. Results showed significant differences (p < 0.05) in pH (CaCl2), exchangeable acidity (DS > RS = FP), total exchangeable base (RS > DS > FP) and effective cation exchange capacity (RS > DS > FP) to influence the highest epigeal germination rate (66.67 ± 24.03%), and largest leaf surface areas (2.83 ± 0.18 cm2) at 8 and 13 weeks after planting respectively by the 50-50, 40-60 and 25-75v/v FP-DS primed soil types. Thus, underscoring FP-base as a potential augmentation product for the priming of degraded tropical forest soil in pursuit of dormancy breakage, viz-a-viz shortened gestation period in the regeneration of Garcinia kola.
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