Comparing Poultry and Rabbit Dung for Soil Enhancement in Vegetable Planting

Background: This study compared the effectiveness of poultry dung and rabbit dung as soil enhancers for vegetable cultivation.

Methods: Rabbit and Poultry dungs were collected in a clean plastic plate from three animal kernel (Blomfree, Miebi and Dakoru animal husbandry poultry farm) within Otuoke. Soil samples collected were weighed and mixed with the rabbit and poultry dungs. Three varieties of vegetables (Abelmoschus esculentus, Telfairia occidentalis, Talinum triangulare) were cultivated in the prepared soil samples. The physicochemical parameters (pH, Nitrogen, Potassium, Phosphorus, and conductivity) and total bacteria count of the soil samples were calculated and monitored over a period of five weeks.

Results: The results showed that organic manure have significantly impacted on the parameters required for the plants cultivated to grow. The findings also showed a gradual increase in the number of leaves, plant height and stem width for the soil sample containing poultry dungs, followed by the control (clay soil) while the soil sample containing rabbit dung had the lowest growth rate (in terms of plant height, stem width and leaf number) and this may be due to the low rate of some physicochemical parameters analyzed in the soil containing rabbit dungs (having 50.02 ± 0.2 value of Potassium, acidic pH value of 4.9 ± 0.01, and high Phosphorus 195 ± 0.05).

Conclusion: The study indicated that the soil containing poultry dung met the soil requirements for the plants cultivated, thus, its plants grew well over the period of the research.