C. C. Nwangburuka, O. J. Olawuyi, K. Oyekale, K. O. Ogunwenmo, O. A. Denton and E. Nwankwo
Five accession of Corchorus olitorius, obtained from two teaching and research and institution in Nigeria were used to access the effect the effect of Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) poultry manure (PM), Inorganic fertilizer (NPK), and the synergy of Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AM) and Poultry manure on the growth and yield of Corchorus olitorius. The experiment was a 5x5 factorial laid out in a randomized complete block design with 3-replication. The experiment was conducted in the teaching and research farm of the Department of Agriculture Babcock University, between November 2011 to February 2012. Data were collected on seven yield related character. The combined Analysis of variance showed significant treatment, accession, replication and accession x treatment interaction effect on majority of the traits evaluated at 0.01 and 0.05 probabilities. AM-PM treatment produced significantly higher weight of pod per plant suggesting that AM-PM treatment has high potential in influencing high crop yield even above NPK. There was significant positive correlation between weights of leaf per plant and plant height at maturity and number of branches per plant at maturity, suggesting that, selection directed toward plant height and number of branches will enhance leaf yield. Accession BUCR7 and BUCR9 were best in number of leaves per plant, weight of leaves per plant and number of pods per plant all at maturity and can be considered as parents in breeding for leafy vegetable yield.