Soil?Based Media for Seedling Emergence and Growth of African Oil Bean (Pentaclethra Macrophylla Benth) Seed at Owerri, Imo State

An experiment using three different soil-based media on seedling emergence and growth of African oil bean seed (Pentaclethra macrophylla Benth) was carried out at the screen house of School of Agriculture and Agricultural Technology, Federal University of Technology, Owerri to determine the best soil-based media for mass production of oil bean seedlings. The top soil served as the control while the other three soil-based media; top soil+cow dung (TS+CD), top soil+rice hull (TS+RH), and top soil+saw dust (TS+SD) were prepared in 1:1, 1:2, 1:3 and 1:4 volume by volume (v/v). The treatments were laid out in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) and replicated six times, giving a total of 72 observation units. Data were collected on days to emergence, plant height, number of root hairs and root length at 50 days after planting (DAP).The combination of top soil+saw dust at 1:3 v/v performed better than the other media combination in all the parameters studied; had least mean value of approximately 18 days to emergence, highest mean value of 23.50cm for plant height, and highest mean value of 119.30 and 26.60cm for number of root hairs and root length at 50 DAP.