Soil texture and watering impact on pot recovery of soil-stripped oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) seedlings

Abstract

The transportation load of oil palm ( Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) seedlings from the nursery to planting sites is a crucial problem facing the extension of smallholder plantations in Cameroon. This load can be considerably reduced by removing soil from the roots, which in turn exposes the plants to water and nutrients stresses. A greenhouse pot experiment was carried out to evaluate the recovery performance of such soil-stripped seedlings as a function of watering frequency and soil texture. Plant recovery potential was monitored on 360 nursery seedlings aged 4 months, under two soil types (sandy clay soil with 46% fine particles and sandy loam soil with 19% fine particles) and two watering frequencies (daily and two-days). Three monthly measurements were taken on morphological plant growth parameters including Plant height, Foliar surface, Collar diameter, Root length and Plant weight. Within and between groups analyses of variance and means separation showed the greatest variability for collar diameter, foliar surface and plant weight. All the parameters showed a greater variability and an almost-constant growth from one month to another, except for plant weight that did show a highly significant (p = 0.000) increase between the first measurement and the second. Soil type, watering and their interaction explained 97–99.5% of the variations of all parameters. Except for root length, all other parameters were more sensitive to the effect of soil texture, explaining 83–95% of the total variation. Only plant weight and root length showed slightly greater values under daily watering, other parameters did not show any sensibility to the two watering frequencies proposed in this experiment. Our results showed a low response of plant growth recovery on the low clay sandy loam soil, revealing that a careful selection of a soil texture is crucial for the survival of seedlings and further establishment of the plants following drought stress. It is therefore strongly recommended to many tropical countries where oil palm is an economically important crop, to take this into account during the selection of soil type for oil palm seedlings nursery.

Effects of Land Use on Soil Physical-Hydric Attributes in Two Watersheds in the Southern Amazon, Brazil

“…Andrade et al (2020) [75] observed a better correlation of microporosity with AWC. Thus, soils with a predominance of micropores tend to store more water [76]. On the other hand, in the two deeper soil layers between 0.1 and 0.4 m, in addition to the correlations observed in the surface layer, AWC was also directly correlated with total porosity, PWP, and clay and inversely correlated with bulk density (BD) and sand content.…”

“…Regarding soil texture, silt and clay contents are strongly associated with PWP. Anaba et al (2020) [76] observed that the relationship between the physical-hydric attributes could explain this behavior since the finer fractions (silt and clay) of the soil have greater participation in water retention at high potentials due to larger specific surfaces. Other soil attributes, such as BD and particle density (PD), were also related to particle size fractions, mainly associated with sand content.…”

Carbon Stock, Carbon Fraction and Nitrogen Fraction of Soil Under Bamboo (Dendrocalamus asper Back.) and Non-Bamboo Vegetation

“…Soil texture will affect the soil's ability to store and provide plant nutrients (Chakraborty and Mistri, 2015). The clay fraction can attract and hold nutrients Table Copyright © 2023 Universitas Sebelas Maret so that a few nutrients will be lost by water flowing through the soil (Anaba et al, 2020).…”

A Review of an Artificial Intelligence Framework for Identifying the Most Effective Palm Oil Prediction

“…One study used 14 different soil textures and chemical variables on six palm oil plantations to measure the effects on palm oil and the physicochemical properties of soil [64]. Anaba et al [65] mentioned that palm oil physiological and behavioural adaptations to survive were defined as early tenera hybrid seedling stages. Sandy soils with macropores exhibit low resistance to penetration, producing excellent root growth in length and ramification.…”