PLANT GROWTH RESPONSE TO AMENDED CRUDE OIL-POLLUTED SOIL: A STUDY ON BEANS, GARDEN EGG, AND CUCUMBER

Abstract

Studies on the growth parameters of beans, garden egg and cucumber, grown on crude oil polluted soil using the leaf litter of Terminalia catappa and hydrogen peroxide as amendments were carried out in Rivers State University Agricultural farm. A complete block design was employed for the experiment.  A total of 70 bags were used for each plant with 14 treatments and 5 replicates. T1:100ml Crude Oil + 100ml H2O2, T2:100ml Crude Oil + 100g l/l, T3:200ml Crude Oil + 200ml H2O2, T4:200ml Crude Oil + 200g l/l, T5:300ml Crude Oil + 300ml H2O2, T6:300ml Crude Oil + 300g l/l, T7:400ml Crude Oil +300ml H2O2, T8:400ml Crude Oil + 400g l/l, T9:500ml Crude Oil + 500ml H2O2, T10:500ml Crude Oil + 500g l/l, T11:no pollution + 500ml H2O2, T12:no pollution + 500g l/l, T13:500ml Crude Oil + no amendment and T14:control. Garden egg, Beans and cucumber seeds were used as test crops. 10kg soil was used in each bag and crude oil was applied afterwards at various levels. Organic and Inorganic manure were applied at 1 month interval after pollution for 4 months, and planting was later done. Plant parameters assessed were Plant-height, Leaf-area, Stem-girth, and Leafnumber which were measured and analysed at 3weeks interval for 12 weeks. Results of plant parameters showed a significant increase in leaf litter amended soils whereas the hydrogen peroxide amended soils had little increase in all the weeks with poor yield generally.  Application of Leaf-Litter Manure and H2O2 greatly degraded the PAHs in the soil. Beans performed better in the growth parameters in Leaf-Litter soils than in H2O2, while cucumber and garden-egg had poor growth in both leaf-litter and H2O2 soils which was obvious in the hydrogen peroxide amended soils.  In general the use of leaf-litter manure for remediation of petroleum contaminated soil should be encouraged as this proved to amend the soils better than hydrogen peroxide