VARYING WATERING REGIMES

Annona muricata also known as soursop, is a plant in the Annonaceae family. Soursop grows in a variety of soil types of soil, which provides a habitat that supports the growth of soil organisms. One of the most important factors influencing microbial activity and diversity in soil is the availability of water. The objective of this study was to identify microorganisms in soil subjected to treatment with Trichoderma sp and planted with soursop under varying watering regimes. The experiment was conducted in the department of Crop Science Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture; University of Benin, Benin city. The study investigated the influence of watering regime, soil media and soil incubation duration on the growth of Soursop. The experiment was laid out in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with two replications and were separated using Student-Newman-Keul test. The results of this experiment showed the presence of four fungal isolates (Mucor mucedo, Trichoderma sp, Aspergillus niger, and Rhizopus arrhizus) and four bacterial isolates (Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus pumilus, and Klebsiella oxytoca) in soil cultivated with soursop under different watering regimes. The identification of Trichoderma sp reaffirms the efficacy of the treatment while the diverse fungi and bacterial species suggest a complex soil ecosystem. It was observed that the varying watering regimes (Watering every day, watering every 3 days, watering every 5 days and Watering every 7 days) showed different degrees of microbial population and diversity, with the highest occurring (12.4 x 10 6 cfu/g and 16.9 x 10 6 cfu/g) in Watering every day while soil-seed treatment; Untreated seed-Untreated soil had the highest microbial population (12.9 x 10 6 cfu/g and 16.4 x 10 6 cfu/g). From the results obtained, the soil and seed treatment, watering regime and soil incubation duration had effect on the microbial population. On the basis of these findings, it is recommended that soil watered daily should be used when growing soursop for optimum growth.