October 21, 2020
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Field study was conducted to determine the responses of pawpaw (Carica papaya L.) var. homestead selection and sunrise-solo and post field soil fertility status to organo-mineral fertilizer (OMF) rates applied at 10, 20 40 t/ha where both the zone t/ha OMF and NPK 15:15:15 at 50g/plant/month served as control. The experiment was a split plot design replicated three times. The result showed that homestead and sunrise pawpaw were not significantly different in plant height, stem girth, canopy spread and leaf area index. The Sunrise however, had higher number of flowers (50.4) and higher number of fruit (25.1) but recorded lower fruit setting rate (54.7%) and lower fruit yield (9.6t/ha) compared to Homesteads performance at 22.6, 17.5, 70.4%, and 14.8t/ha respectively. Significant higher response of pawpaw in sole compared to mixed indicated growth and yield retardation. The 40t/ha OMF rates produced significant higher stem girth (8.5cm) and canopy spread (169.2cm) responses, and all OMF rates had significantly higher (p<0.01) cumulative and mean number of flowers, number of fruits, and fruit yield and significantly increased %P, %K, Na and % organic matter compared to NPK which depleted the Na. However, while sole pawpaw varieties recorded higher in soil bulk density (SBD), the Homestead mixture was least in SBD and significantly depleted % organic matter compared to Sunrise crop mixture which utilized more Na and Mg. in conclusion, the homestead probably due to more rooting activities and the addition of OMF to soils as a result of loosening effect on soil particles had significant influence leading the lower SBD.
Stem girth, canopy spread,organo-mineral fertilizer, soil fertility status, soil bulk density