Evaluation of nutrient content in liquid organic fertilizer from paspalum and sweet potato leaves.

Abstract

The research was carried out to evaluate the percentage concentration of magnesium, calcium and nitrogen from liquid organic fertilizer made from sweet potato leaves and paspalum grass. Sweet potatoes and paspalum are common plants found in all communities of Uganda. These are well known to contain plant nutrient in large quantities. The liquid organic fertilizer was made by mixing 5kg of plant material, 1kg of ash and 5litres of water and the materials were left in a closed container for 28days. From the study, it was found out that liquid organic from sweet potatoes and paspalum contain higher concentration of nitrogen, followed by calcium and magnesium had the lowest percentage. The percentage concentrations of these three plant nutrients were lower than the nutrients supplied by inorganic fertilizers like CAN and NPK. The result of this study therefore show that these two plants contain essential nutrients needed by plants and could be promising sources for making liquid organic fertilizer needed for plant growth.