Effects of Selected Soil Amendments on Germination and Emergence of Maize in Kilifi County

Abstract

Kilifi County in the Coastal region of Kenya is mainly semi-arid where rainfall is the most limiting factor to crop production and therefore a source of food insecurity. In the last five years researchers at Pwani University have conducted studies to find out the most appropriate soil amendment to ameliorate the deficit soil moisture and crop performance of maize during the growing season. The tested soil amendments included farm yard manure, super absorbent polymer and DAP fertilizer. Germination and emergence stage were considered important because they determine crop ground coverage and establishment during the early stages of growth, thinning and gapping requirements and final yield. They also inform the state of the planted seed in terms of viability, dormancy and damage by pests/diseases and therefore germination percentage. A study was carried out at Pwani University crop sciences farm where a randomized complete block design experiment replicated three times was set during the on-set of 2023-long rains season. The treatments were applied per plot at planting in the holes spaced at 90cm by 60cm where each respective amendment material was thoroughly mixed with the soil before placing the seed and covering it with a thin layer of soil. Data collected included total number of planted maize seeds per plot and number of emergent seedlings above the soil surface per plot after seven days since planting. The collected data was converted to percentage emergence per plot and then subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA). The obtained treatment means were then compared using Tukey's Honest Significant Difference (HSD) test at α=0.05. The results showed that the tested soil amendments had significant effects on the emergence of maize seedlings. The manure and control treatments had the highest emergence percentages of 87% and 98% respectively while Super Absorbent Polymer (SAP) and DAP-fertilizer recorded the lowest emergence percentages of 36% and 6% respectively. Thus, it would appear that DAP and SAP significantly suppressed the emergence of maize seedlings, suggesting that the amendments could have had some toxic or scotching effects on the maize seeds or created adverse soil moisture conditions for germination and or emergence of the maize seedlings.