Physicochemicals Properties of Soils with Peanut Shell Amendment and Its Impact to Growth and Yield of Maize

Abstract

The present research studied how the addition of peanut shell to the soil effected on physicochemical properties of soil and plant growth. Waste peanut shells were used to enhance soil properties by composting for cultivation of plants as the organic fertilizer. In the composting step, 2:3 (v/v) of peanut shell and soil was mixed for two months and utilized for the cultivation of maize plants. Some parameters of soil, peanut shell and peanut shell-compost such as pH, moisture, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, organic carbon, total sulphur, calcium and magnesium were examined by using their respective standard methods to compare the properties of control and compost-soil. It is observed that the soil added with peanut shell-compost has a potential increasement of nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, total sulphur, total calcium and total magnesium in plant growth media than control soil. The results obtained in plant growth media also pointed out that the growth rate and yield percent with composed soil were better than those of control soil. These research findings can contribute to the local people from agricultural field with the scientific information of waste peanut shell as low cost alternative fertilizer.