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Chicken Bones and Malunggay (Moringa oleifera) Stalks as Plant Growth Enhancer |
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Meeting the demands of local and global needs and finding solutions to address environmental issues regarding appropriate agricultural strategies, the study is driven to search for alternative sources of plant growth enhancer through utilizing materials that are locally available in the country and are usually considered as waste products. Chicken bones, although considered as waste, has high mineral content that can be well suitable as a natural source of calcium and phosphorus which are an essential nutrients for plant growth. On the other hand, malunggay stalks also contain substantial amounts of valuable macro- and micro-nutrients. The study focuses on formulating plant growth enhancer, using chicken bones and malunggay stalks, and comparing it to the commercial in shoot length, leaf area, and number of leaves with varying concentrations. The study is a quasi-experimental divided into three phases: formulation, application of experimental and commercial plant growth enhancer, and the measurement of the growth of the plants. Gathered data has been tabulated and treated with T test and Two-way ANOVA. With the findings, chicken bone and malunggay stalks can be used as plant growth enhancer. Agriculture is one of the vital movers of a country‟s economy. In the Philippines, almost one third of the total land area of 29.187 million hectares is under intensive cultivation. There is a high potential of generating labor and livelihood and agricultural products. These potentials however, are being hindered due to lack of appropriate agricultural strategies. Thus, this study aims to integrate new approaches of enhancing the growth of the plant by utilizing the chicken bones and malunggay plants.
Bone fractions from chicken and malunggay (Moringa oleifera) stalks have been regarded as waste since there is a limited scientific documentation of the nutritional value of these residuals. Thus the immediate thinking of the people is to throw the chicken bone fraction and the malunggay stalks without much thought. Contrariwise, a recent study (Sirirat, 2004) claims that chicken bone is rich in calcium and contains Calcium - Phosphorus ratio of 2:1 making it an inexpensive alternative calcium and phosphorus source. On the other hand, malunggay stalks, like the malunggay leaves, also contain substantial amounts of valuable macro- and micro-nutrients such as Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K). These nutrients are the very critical minerals needed in the growth of the plant. This substantiates the need to explore the use of chicken bones and malunggay stalks to be integrated in the agricultural strategies of plant growing. The experimentation had undergone three phases. First was the formulation of plant growth enhancer, followed by application of plant growth enhancer to the soil and the planting of pechay seeds, and lastly measurement of growth of the plants. During the formulation process, the chicken bones and the malunggay stalks were chopped into powder-like texture. The powdered chicken bones and malunggay stalks were divided into five setups. For setup 1, pure malunggay stalks were added to the soil. For setup 2, pure chicken bones were added to the soil. For setup 3, every 25 grams of malunggay stalks 75 grams of chicken bones was added. For setup 4, every 75 grams malunggay stalks 35 grams of chicken bones was added. For setup 5, every 50 grams of malunggay stalks 50 grams of chicken bones was added. These mixtures are then added to the soil. The pechay seeds are planted to the soil afterwards.
Measuring the growth of the plants was done using tape measure. Three factors were considered: shoot length, leaf area and number of leaves. The shoot length of the plant was measured from the top soil to the tip of the highest leaf. This was repeated in every setup. For the leaf area, each plant?s leaf was measure through computing its width and length. For the number of leaves, each plant?s leaf in every setup was counted. This was repeated in every setup. |
   
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19 Comments
may I know who is the author of this study?
Posted 15-11-2020 11:50
Thank you for sharing, Mary!
Posted 30-11-2014 13:54
Thank you Sadam and Rohan! :D I'm glad to share our research with you. I hope you can also use the findings in your endeavor. :)
Posted 29-09-2014 12:06
Your research presentation deserves to be the best, Mary. In India also cow dung has been used for fuel since centuries Also composting plant leaves for manure as another age old practice.
Chicken bones & malunggay stalks is a novel idea.
You have depicted the whole process vividly. Kudos for that.
Thanks for a meaningful report.
Posted 28-09-2014 20:09
Wooow that is awesome , IN Yemen we use the other Animals shit as Plant Growth Enhancer , today and through your report we get to know other way to utilizing chicken bones for making fertilizer.
Posted 28-09-2014 10:35
Hi Mary!
With sincere respect I clap for your research work. This is indeed fascinating.
Carbon and phosphorus can sustain in the biogeochemical cycles!
I'll be glad to read this project further through your paper.
Waiting for your response!
Thanks and cheers!
:)
Posted 28-09-2014 03:01
Hi Wen Shin! Thank you for asking, I'm sorry I forgot to put the process of making the powdered chicken bones. :) Well, what our team did is that we cleaned the chicken bones and remove all the leftover meat anything that is not bone (xD) and then we wash it boiled water. Then we microwave it (we don't burn it at high temp because it lessens the calcium content of the bones) and break it until it is powdered form already. It's kind of a long process but it's fun :)
Posted 28-09-2014 00:40
Thank you for the question Achmad! :) Well, based on our research, a broiler chicken (has an average 1336 grams), is composed of 28% bone. This gives us 318 grams of bone, of this 7% is moisture. The 30% of that (308 grams off bone in total) is the calcium content which is 92.4 gram. Consequently, this gives us 46.2 grams of potential phosphorus since, as stated above, there is a 2:1 ratio of calcium to phosphorus in the bones.
A dressed chicken broiler has 2218 mg of phosphorus and 134 mg grams of calcium.
2218 mg (chicken meat and skin) + 46,200 mg (bones) = 48,418 milligrams of phosphorus
134mg (chicken meat & skin) + 92,534 mg (bones) = 92,668 miligrams of calcium
This gives us a 1.91:1 ration of Ca/P (RetrieverPro,2013).
Posted 28-09-2014 00:34
Thank you Rahul! :) We have the same belief, that's why we tapped our Regional Director of Department of Agriculture to help us in our endeavor. Hopefully, with deeper research, we can integrate this study to the current plant growing strategy of the farmers in our region. :)
Posted 28-09-2014 00:25
Thank you Alina and Dharmendra! :) I'm glad you're actually practicing this method, Dharmendra. :) However, our process of making the chicken bones as plant growth enhancer does not include turning them into charcoal. We (our research team) instead use the microwave so that the bones will easily be powdered. :)
Posted 28-09-2014 00:18
Thank you Arushi and Christy! This research has actually won the best research presentation during our departement's yearly expo. I think it highlights how the growing issue of food waste can be transformed as a novel idea to augment an existing method know in the society. I hope this research was able to stir the creativity in you. :)
Posted 28-09-2014 00:13
Hi Mary, this project is interesting, I don't know what to do with all the bone that I have..
I usually just throw it away :X
May I know how you actually process this into the powder?Do u burn the chicken bone for long time at high temperature?
Thanks for sharing my dear :D
Posted 27-09-2014 19:31
Could you tell me the percentage of calcium, phosphorous, and other mineral contained by chicken bones? It is available in your country abundantly?
Posted 27-09-2014 18:15
interesting article Mary Rose. Optimum utilization of locally available reosurces and enhancement of soil condition by using these as fertilizer must be promoted. here as well we use bone meal, farm animal urine in addition to other common/popular organic materials. These fulfill our maximum nutrient requirement especially NPK, and few micro nutrients and hel us to deduce dependency in commercial inorganic fertilizer.
Posted 27-09-2014 17:28
Although I'm Eggetarian but my family loves to have chicken in dinner and after a chicken dinner we boil the bones to remove any leftover fat or meat, which goes to my pet. then we put the bones on gas grill and turn them into charcoal and then turn into powder(with the help of grinder). My plants love it :)
Posted 26-09-2014 16:51
Very Interesting!! Supplying soil with organics like bone meal is rich in nitrogen, will help to nourish soil without the added man-made chemicals. Chicken bones are great for this purpose. Thanks for sharing, Mary :)
Posted 26-09-2014 16:43
A good way that nothing gets wasted.Really amazing Mary.
Posted 26-09-2014 11:40
Thank you Mary, for the interesting & informative article! It's really creative idea utilizing chicken bones for making fertilizer. I've never taken chicken bones seriously before but it's a total mixture of ingredients for good fertilizer :D
Posted 26-09-2014 11:38
Oh very interesting , Mary. This once again proves that nothing is waste and everything has a value just like chicken bones & malunggay stalks introduced in your report as plant growth enhancers. Glad to know.
Posted 25-09-2014 23:45