| Popis: |
Soils of the tropical and subtropical climate are intensively weathered, acidic and have low native fertility. In order to determine the effect of lime and its combination with either poultry manure or Tithonia diversifolia on tropical rainforest soil, top soils were collected from the Teaching and Research Farm of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (7 †5’ N, long 5 †10’ E) in South West, Nigeria and incubated. Five treatments and a control were established at Soil:Lime:Manure ratio of 10:1:1, the treatments were; Soil+Lime (S+L), Soil+Lime+ Tithonia diversifolia (S+L+T), Soil+Lime+Poultry manure (S+L+PM), Soil+ Tithonia diversifolia (S+T), Soil+Poultry manure (S+PM), and a control S. The experiment was laid out in a Completely Randomised Design (CRD) with three replicates and soil water maintained at field capacity. Soil samples were collected for chemical analysis, soil respiration measurement and microbe count at the 2 nd , 4 th , 6 th , 8 th , and10 th week. Data collected were subjected to statistical analysis and the result showed that the application of Lime, poultry manure and T. diversifolia and their combinations reduced soil acidity. The combination of lime with poultry manure or T. Tithonia diversifolia improved soil nutrient and microbes count. Lime combined with poultry manure most favoured rapid multiplication of soil bacteria. †|
