Influence of wood ash as a source of supplemental calcium on groundnut (arachis hypogaea l.) yield and seed quality
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Date
1999
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Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) has a peculiar calcium (Ca) requirement particulary for
its development during the initial peg^ng and seed development. For this purpose
supplemental Ca is usually recommended when a crop is grown on acid soils with low
cation exchange capacity (CEC). To evaluate the influence of supplemental Ca on yield
and seed quality of selected groundnut cultivars two field experiments were conducted at
Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro region during the months of February ■
May and April - August, 1998.
The experiment was laid out as a split - plot in a randomized complete block design with
three replications. Three groundnut cultivars Baka, ICGV 86112 and Spancross were the
main plots, while calcium levels 0, 60,100,140 kg Ca/ha obtained from wood ash and one
treatment of 140 kg Ca/ha from hydrated lime were the sub plots. Each subplot had eight
rows, 2 m long with in - row spacing of 10 cm.
The results show that there was significant (P < 0.05) cultivar effect on the number of
filled pods per plant, seed size, seed yield per plant and seed diameter. Application of Ca
had no significant effect on most of the variables analyzed. However, there was significant
interaction (P < 0.05) between cultivar and Ca on seed yield per plant. The lack ofresponse to Ca observed in this study suggests that there was no difference in Ca uptake
among cultivars used. Significant interaction between cultivar and Ca level on seed yield
per plant in experiment 2 suggests that cultivars used respond differently to applied Ca
with respect to this character. Soil analysis at the end of each experiment indicated that the
applied Ca levels had an increasing effect on soil pH and exchangeable Ca suggesting that
wood ash may be used for liming acid soils.
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Masters Theses
Keywords
Wood ash, Yield groundnut, Arachis hypogaea, Seed qualit