mortiz085

By Luz Geneston-Asio, Central Analytical Services Lab, VSU, Baybay, Leyte The use of locally available and cheap organic fertilizers like chicken dung and rice hull ash which have the ability to increase crop yield and at the same time improve soil quality is becoming popular among farmers in many places in the Philippines. In addition, considering that the world demand for corn as food and feed is projected to greatly increase in the coming decades, there is a need to explore the use of such materials for corn production. We evaluated the growth and yield responses of corn to chicken dung and rice hull ash application a well as to mycorrhizal fungi inoculation. The experiment was laid out in a split-plot in Randomized Complete Block Design consisting of three replications. Vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal (VAM) inoculation served as the main plot while application of fertilizer was designated as the subplot. The fertilizer treatments included the following: To-control, T1-inorganic fe

Lantana camara Linn, locally called Utot-utot , Koronitas or Kantotoy in the Philippines, is a shrub which originated from tropical America. It is considered as one of the worst invasive plant species and is a noxious weed in many parts of the world. The plant is known to suppress the regeneration of neighboring plants through allelopathic effects (by releasing volatile and non-volatile chemicals from its tissues and residues). The spread of Lantana is aided by the characteristic of its leaves which is somewhat poisonous to animals while its fruit is a delicacy for many birds which distribute the seeds (Wikipedia). In a recent study published in Geoderma journal, Ling Fan and co-workers evaluated the chemical and microbiological properties of the soil underneath the canopy of Lantana camara as well as the soil away from it. They also investigated the effect of Lantana on the growth of three neighboring plant species (ryegrass, mungbean, and radish). Results revealed that the soils