Article Info Received : 02.02.2017 Accepted : 22.05.2017 Acceleration of composting process could influence fertilizer-efficiency of the accelerated composts. This study therefore evaluated the nutrient release dynamics of different rates of a commercial accelerated compost (OBD-plus ) in two soils described as Alfisol and Ultisol, under laboratory incubation study, in order to generate information for simulation under field conditions. Accelerated compost (AC) at the rates of 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 kg N ha -1 , mineral fertilizer (NPK 15-15-15) and conventional compost (CC) at 60 kg N ha -1 , were each mixed with 2 mm sieved soil (Alfisol and Ultisol) in cups, and arranged in a completely randomised design with three replications. Soils without amendment served as control. The treated soils were retrieved at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 weeks of incubation (WOI), air dried and analysed for pH, organic C, N, P and K, and data analysed using regression test. The results revealed that the 60 kg N ha -1 AC improved the pH, OC, N. P, K by -2%, 11%, 3%, 141% and 4% respectively, across the WOI, on the average of performance in the two soils, comparable with mineral fertilizer (-5%, 8%, -1%, 76%, 4% respectively) and CC (11%, 40%, 3%, 773%, 10% respectively). The 60 kg N ha -1 AC significantly correlated (p<0.05) with time of incubation only with respect to P (0.934) and gave a similar nutrient release pattern compared with mineral fertilizer and CC, in terms of C, N, P and K in both soils. It therefore showed that the accelerated compost evaluated could mineralize in a way similar to conventional compost and mineral fertilizers, despite its shorter composting duration to maturity.

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Article InfoThis study evaluated the effect of two plant materials (Panicum maximum and Tridax procumbens) composted with cow dung, with or without Trichoderma asperellum inoculation on soil properties and yield of celosia in 2014 and 2015. The treatments were tridax-based compost without Trichoderma (TBC), tridaxbased compost with Trichoderma (TTBC), panicum-based compost without Trichoderma (PBC), panicum-based compost with Trichoderma (TPBC) and control (no compost). All compost were applied at 240 kgN/ha. The design was RCBD with three replicates and data analyzed using ANOVA at α0.05. Results showed that compost enhanced growth, nutrient uptake and yield of celosia. In 2014, highest fresh weight (57.09 t/ha) was obtained from plant treated with TPBC, which compared favourably with TTBC TTBC (57.00 t/ha) but significantly higher than TBC (43.85 t/ha) and PBC (47.32 t/ha) while control gave the least significant value (20 t/ha). A similar trend was obtained in 2015. This infers that plants that received inoculated compost gave better yield compared to uninoculated compost. Post-cropping soil chemical analysis revealed that compost improved soil N, P, K and organic C. This shows that Trichoderma inoculated compost could be better than the uninoculated compost for celosia production in an Alfisol.