ABSTRACT

A greenhouse experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of different soil types and nitrogen levels on the growth and performance of maize for soils of the Western teaching and research farm of the Michael okpara University of Agriculture Umudike. The different soil types A and C (Typic Kandiustults) and E (Typic Hapludult) and 5 nitrogen levels (0, 30, 60, 90 and 120kg N/ha) served as the treatments. A basal application of 60kg P2051ha and 60kg K20/ha was made in the treatments. Data were collected on these plant parameters, (plant height, leaf area, number of leaves, stem girth and dry matter yield). A 5x3 factorial experiment in CRD was used to analyze the results: 60 kg N/ha was found to be optimum for soil types A C and E for dry matter yield. 60 kg N/ha gave the highest plant height for soil types C (106.5 cm) and 90 kg N/ha for soil type E (117.9 cm) while 120 kg N/ha had the highest effect on maize height for soil type A (91.3 cm). 60 kg N/ha had the highest effect on leaf area (440. 1 cm2) and (484.1 cm2) for soil types A and C respectively while 120 kg N/ha gave the highest leaf area for soil type E (743.6 cm2). 120 kg N/ha gave the highest number of leaves for soil types A and E (15.7) and (18.3) respectively while 30 kg N/ha gave the highest number of leaves in soil type C (14.3). Soil type E had the highest effect on maize stem girth (1.473 cm) while there was no observed significant difference between soil type C (1.173 cm) and A (1.080 cm) at Pcz0.05. The performance of maize in these soils followed the order E> C>A