Effects of Crude Oil on Fresh and Dry Weights of solanum melongena, Phaseolus vulgaris and Cucumis sativus Amended with Leaf Litter and Hydrogen Peroxide

Studies on the effect of crude oil on Fresh and Dry weights of Solanum melongena, Phaseolus vulgaris and Cucumis sativus using leaf litter and hydrogen peroxide as bioremediators were carried out in the Rivers State University Agricultural Farm. The experiment had 14 treatments and 5 replicates: T1: 100ml crude oil (C/O) + 100ml H2O2, T2: 100ml C/O + 100g l/l, T3: 200ml C/O + 200ml H2O2, T4: 200ml C/O + 200g l/l, T5: 300ml C/O + 300ml H2O2, T6: 300ml C/O + 300g l/l, T7: 400ml C/O +400ml H2O2, T8: 400ml C/O + 400g l/l, T9: 500ml C/O + 500ml H2O2, T10: 500ml C/O + 500g l/l, T11: no pollution + 500ml H2O2, T12: no pollution + 500g l/l, T13: 500ml C/O + no amendment and T14: control.420 experimental bags of 10kg capacity were filled with 10kg soil and polluted with C/O at different levels.140 bags for each plant. Organic and Inorganic manure were applied at 1 month interval after pollution for 4 months, and planting was done afterwards. Fresh and dry weights of the three test crops were determined. Result of fresh weight of phaseolus vulgaris in organic soils had very high values (515-550g) while inorganic amended soils had lower values (49-62g), T11, T12 had the highest values of 655 and 823g while T14 had 137g. However, dry weight values for phaseolus vulgaris in organic amended soils recorded (100-114g) and Inorganic amended soils recorded (7.2-11.7), T11, T12 had higher values (162 and 180g), T14 had 118.4g. Result of fresh and dry weights of cucumis sativus was low values compared to that of phaseolus vulgaris. Cucumus sativus had fresh weight values for organic amended soils (72g-110g) while the inorganic amended soils had lower fresh weight values (37g-42g). The soils without pollution that were amended had the highest fresh weight values in both organic and inorganic amendments with values of (T11=100g and T12=138g). Result for dry weight of cucumber was generally low in all the treatments (0.7-5.3g) with T11 and T12 having the highest values (10.3 and 23.5g). Solanum melongena also had higher values in leaf litter amended soils than the H2O2 amended soils. Solanum melongena grown in unpolluted soils with both leaf litter and H2O2 had the best results at harvest (T1-100 and T12-104). Treatment 14 (T14) which is the control (no pollution + no amendment) had the lowest total fresh weight of garden egg (5.0). Results for dry weight of garden egg was low as observed in T14 (0.2), followed by T9 (0.6) and T10 (0.7) which had the highest concentration of crude oil. T13 (0.0) had no growth at harvest. The highest total dry weight of garden egg was observed in T12 (10.6) which had organic manure amendment (leaf litter) without pollution, while the inorganic amended soil (H2O2) without pollution (T13) had very high dry weight (7.5) as compared to the other treatments. Phaseolus vulgaris had higher fresh and dry weight than solanum melongena and cucumis sativus in the entire experiment hence it is a legume and a hyperaccumulator as well, and leaf litter served as a better amendment as the soils had higher fresh and dry weights.