<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><italic>Ensete ventricosum</italic> (enset) has been cultivated in Ethiopia since ancient times. It is a multipurpose, drought tolerant and food security crop. When burying enset corms for vegetative propagation, manure is usually placed on the soil surface. However, there is no research-based evidence to justify this practice. We hypothesised that enset sucker production would be enhanced by placing manure in the corm burial hole. We tested this hypothesis, investigated manure application rates per buried corm and tested the effect of supplying a small amount of inorganic fertilizer. Three enset cultivars (Endale, Gewada and Yanbule) were used. Ninety corm halves were buried in separate holes (N = 3), resulting in 1,389 individually recorded suckers. There were significantly more suckers and a larger total biomass when manure was placed with the corm than when spread on the top of the soil, thus corroborating the main hypothesis. The number of suckers and the biomass increased with increasing amounts of air-dried cow manure up to 4.0 kg DW per burial hole, while the size of the three largest suckers per buried corm increased further with 6.0 kg DW of manure. Supplying a smaller amount of manure (2.0 kg DW) or equal nitrogen amount from inorganic fertilizer increased the production, compared to the treatment with no fertilizer. In conclusion, we recommend that farmers should ideally bury the corm with 7-11 dm<sup>3</sup> of air-dried pulverized manure, thoroughly mixed with field soil; if manure is in short supply, burying even a small amount of it with the corm is beneficial.</p></abstract>

Ensete ventricosum (enset) has been cultivated in Ethiopia since ancient times. It is a multipurpose, drought tolerant and food security crop. When burying enset corms for vegetative propagation, manure is usually placed on the soil surface. However, there is no research-based evidence to justify this practice. We hypothesised that enset sucker production would be enhanced by placing manure in the corm burial hole. We tested this hypothesis, investigated manure application rates per buried corm and tested the effect of supplying a small amount of inorganic fertilizer. Three enset cultivars (Endale, Gewada and Yanbule) were used. Ninety corm halves were buried in separate holes (N = 3), resulting in 1,389 individually recorded suckers. There were significantly more suckers and a larger total biomass when manure was placed with the corm than when spread on the top of the soil, thus corroborating the main hypothesis. The number of suckers and the biomass increased with increasing amounts of air-dried cow manure up to 4.0 kg DW per burial hole, while the size of the three largest suckers per buried corm increased further with 6.0 kg DW of manure. Supplying a smaller amount of manure (2.0 kg DW) or equal nitrogen amount from inorganic fertilizer increased the production, compared to the treatment with no fertilizer. In conclusion, we recommend that farmers should ideally bury the corm with 7-11 dm3 of air-dried pulverized manure, thoroughly mixed with field soil; if manure is in short supply, burying even a small amount of it with the corm is beneficial.

Effect of manure amount and improved application technique at corm burial on the propagation of enset (<italic>Ensete ventricosum</italic>) suckers

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Folia Horticulturae

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Effect of manure amount and improved application technique at corm burial on the propagation of enset () suckers

Ensete ventricosum (enset) has been cultivated in Ethiopia since ancient times. It is a multipurpose, drought tolerant and food security crop. When burying...

Effect of manure amount and improved application technique at corm burial on the propagation of enset (Ensete ventricosum) suckers

Published Online: Jun 30, 2019

Page range: 171 - 180

Received: Mar 21, 2018

Accepted: Dec 07, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/fhort-2019-0012

Keywords
Ethiopia, fertilization, food security, kocho, manure, planting technique, vegetative propagation

© 2019 Abraham Bosha et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Effect of manure amount and improved application technique at corm burial on the propagation of enset (Ensete ventricosum) suckers

Published Online: Jun 30, 2019

Page range: 171 - 180

Received: Mar 21, 2018

Accepted: Dec 07, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/fhort-2019-0012

KeywordsEthiopia, fertilization, food security, kocho, manure, planting technique, vegetative propagation

© 2019 Abraham Bosha et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
Ethiopia, fertilization, food security, kocho, manure, planting technique, vegetative propagation