Germination and Early Growth Performance of Cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) Seedlings in Planting Media

Background and Objective: Growth media are substrates or materials that provide anchors and nutrients for seeds to germinate and plants to grow. The amount of nutrients in these media and their influences on plant growth cannot be overemphasized. However, the experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of nursery growth media on the germination and growth performance of cacao seedlings from April to August, 2020. Materials and Methods: The experimental design used was a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with five treatments, poultry manure plus river sand (PM+RS) at a ratio of 3:2, poultry manure plus river sand plus sawdust (PM+RS+SD) at a ratio of 3:1:2, poultry manure plus top soil plus river sand (PM+TS+RS) at a ratio of 3:2:1, poultry manure plus top soil plus sawdust (PM+TS+SD) at a ratio of 3:1:2 and Topsoil (TS). Each treatment was replicated three times. The parameters measured were the days of sprouting, germination rate, seedling height, girth, number of leaves and leaf area. The 15 kg of each treatment were placed in a 10 L plastic bucket perforated at the base. Results: The PM+RS+SD and PM+TS+SD were the highest values recorded. At 10 WAP (weeks after planting), 12 WAP and 14 WAP, PM+RS+SD and PM+TS+SD recorded the highest plant heights (cm) of 30.90, 32.40, 37.45 and 29.59, 32.30, 40.38, respectively which were significantly higher (p<0.05) in values than heights from other media. In respect of stem girth, PM+RS+SD was significantly highest and different from other media from 8 WAP to 12 WAP but was statistically the same with PM+TS+SD at 14 WAP. For the number of leaves produced, PM+TS+SD was significantly different, with 24.33 from others, except for PM+RS+SD, which had 22.33 at 14 WAP. For the leaf area, PM+TS+SD and PM+RS+SD performed better than others. Conclusion: In the context of this work, PM+RS+SD can be recommended for raising cocoa seedlings because of its ability to induce early germination, a very short period of achieving 100% fastest and the highest achievement of plant-assessed growth parameters.