rnal Jou Journal of Applied Appl Journal of Applied Horticulture, 21(3): 218-222, 2019 Horticulture DOI: https://doi.org/10.37855/jah.2019.v21i03.38 ISSN: 0972-1045 The new composition of liquid organic fertilizer for improving organic tomato yield and quality Gina Aliya Sopha1,2* and Liferdi Lukman3 1Indonesian Vegetable Research Institute, Lembang, Kabupaten Bandung Barat, Jawa Barat. Indonesia. 2Present address: School of Agriculture and Environment, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand. 3Directorate General of Horticulture of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia. *E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] Abstract The increasing demand of organic products of improved quality has become a priority to meet customer needs. Nine different organic material were studied to determine the suitable composition for liquid organic fertilizer. The study was conducted as a pot trial to evaluate the effect of liquid organic fertilizer on organic tomato yield. The study reported thatLeucaena leucocephala had great potential as nitrogen source, Pennisetum purpureum and goat manure for phosphorus, and rabbit manure had the highest amount of potassium content. The applications of liquid organic fertilizer made from these materials increased the tomato growth and yield compared to control. Application of 75 % organic manure + 20 mL L-1 liquid organic fertilizer improved the tomato yield by 83 % and increased the vitamin C content (66 %) than the control. Key words: Organic farming, liquid organic fertilizer, Lycopersicum esculentum, organic matter, manure Introduction to 40 % than control in water stress condition. Similarly, Yarsi (2019) reported that liquid worm fertilizer improved the tomato Area under organic farming is increasing around the world. yield up to 40 % than control. In addition, it is reported that liquid Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) and IFOAM organic fertilizer made from animal-based fertilizer could replace – Organics International at BIOFACH reported that nearly 70 the chemical fertilizer in greenhouse conditions (Guajardo-Rios et million hectares of farmland are organic (Willer and Lernoud, al., 2018). Different nutrient sources could give different effects 2019). This number will increase linearly with the consumer on the tomato growth and yield (Anila et al., 2019). In spite of demand. Healthy diet and agriculture sustainability are the main the benificial effect of liquid organic fertilizer on tomato yield, reasons for increasing the demand of organic product. In spite of every area has different organic manures. the enhancing demand of organic products, organic farming has problems like low yield and the high of production cost. Use of organic material locally available in the area as the liquid organic source is beneficial and practicaclly adaptable to the One of the production cost that contribute to the organic farming local farmers. Thus, it is important to analyze the nutrient content system is organic fertilizers. Organic fertilizers commonly have of these local materials to obtain a high quality liquid organic low nutrient content and need to be applied in a huge amount fertilizer. This study aims to identify the organic materials that to fulfil the crop nutrient demand and some times makes it have potential as liquid organic fertilizer in West Java, Indonesia ineffective and inefficient. Therefore, liquid organic fertilizers and study the effect of the liquid organic fertilizer from these are developed to improve the crop growth and to achieve high materials on organic tomato growth and yield. yield (Sopha and Uhan, 2013). The tomato is one of the most important vegetables in most part Materials and methods of the world. The economy and nutrition importance of this crop Experimental site: The study was conducted in an experimental are undeniable. On a worldwide scale, the production of fresh field of the Indonesian Vegetable Research Institute (IVEGRI) in tomatoes is approximately 160 million tonnes per year and 25 % 2015. The site is situated in highland Lembang, Bandung Barat, of those are used in the processing industry (The Global Tomato West Java, Indonesia (latitude: 6o48’S, longitude: 107o39’E, Processing Industry, 2019). Organic tomato is reported to have a 1250 m above sea level). Climatic data were collected from better quality than conventional tomatoes. It contains 57 % more Meteorological and Geophysical Agency of West Java. The total soluble solids and 55 % more vitamin C than conventionally annual rainfall was 2216 from January to December 2015. Mean grown tomatoes (Oliveira et al., 2013). This finding encourages temperature ranged from 23.1 to 24.5oC with the minimum the organic tomato production to improve and develop. temperature from 18.1 to 20.6oC and the maximum temperature from 28.4 to 31.9 oC. The average of relative humidity was 63 Liquid organic fertilizer was reported to improve the tomato to 82 %. fruit yield in different studies. Murtic et al. (2018) reported that Ergonfill, liquid organic fertilizer that was made from the The soil type was andosol with soil pH = 5.4 (acid), high organic hydrolysis of animal protein, increased cherry tomato yield up carbon 7.26 %, total nitrogen 0.55 %, the C/N ratio 13, low Journal of Applied Horticulture (www.horticultureresearch.net) Liquid organic fertilizer on organic tomato 219 available phosphorus (P-Bray) 12 mg P kg-1 and high available the last measurement. To calculate the weight per fruit the total potassium (K-Morgan) 804 ppm. weight was divided by the number of fruits. The study consisted of two experiments: (1) formulation of liquid The diameter and the length of the fruits were measured with organic fertilizer and (2) the evaluation of liquid organic fertilizer calipers. To measure the water content, the fruits were dried on organic tomato growth and yield. in oven (65 oC) (Memmert type UN 450) and weighed in an electrical balance (Precisa type XB 620C). Total soluble solid The experiment was Formulation of liquid organic fertilizer: was measured by refractometer. Fruit texture was measured by a conducted from March to May 2015. The organic materials viz., manual food texture tester (Atago N1). Vitamin C was analyzed leaves of white leadtree (Leucaena leucocephala), leaves of by the titration method. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens), leaves of snap bean (Phaseolus was performed using SAS with a comparison of means using vulgaris), leaves of elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum), DUNCAN at α=5 %. chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) manure, cow (Bos taurus) manure, rabbit (Lepus negricollis) manure, goat (Capra aegagrus Results and discussion hircus) manure and bat (Ordo: Chrioptera) manure were collected from different areas in West Java, Indonesia and analyzed for the Formulation of liquid organic fertilizer: The results show that chemical content. white leadtree had the highest amount of nitrogen (5.41 %), while rabbit manure had the highest amount of phosphorus content (2.64 o Plant samples were cleaned, cut and oven dried at 70 C (Memmert %) and elephant grass and goat manure had the highest content of type UN 450). The dry samples were ground to 0.5 mm size. For potassium (2.58 %) (Table 1). The organic materials that would animal manure, the samples were ground until homogenous and be used as liquid organic fertilizer sources were white leadtree, sieved at 2.0 mm prior to analysis. N-Kjeldahl (%) was measured rabbit manure, elephant grass and goat manure with formulation by distillation to calculate the N-organic and N-NH4 using NaOH 2:2:1:1 (v/v/v/v). 40 %. Phosphorus content was analyzed by spectrophotometer Table 1. The mineral content of organic materials using HNO and HClO . Furthermore, potassium content was 3 4 Organic Materials N-total (%) P (%) K (%) determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy. White leadtree 5.41 0.32 1.87 The evaluation of liquid organic fertilizer on organic Velvet bean 2.94 0.20 1.10 tomato growth and yield: The tomato cultivar Zamrud from Snap bean 3.28 0.35 2.09 Indonesian Vegetable Research Institute was used. ‘Zamrud’ is Elephant grass 2.50 0.25 2.58 determinate cultivar and tolerant to wilting bacteria (Rhizoctonia Chicken manure 0.61 0.26 0.86 solanacearum). ‘Zamrud’ seeds were sown in a well-prepared Cow manure 1.67 1.83 1.08 nursery seedbed (andosol soil: manure 1:1 (v/v)). The seed was Rabbit manure 2.28 2.64 1.20 sown and was watered by watering can and no insecticide was Goat manure 1.12 1.00 2.58 used during the growth period. When seedling reached the four- Bat manure 1.16 0.25 0.40 leaf stage (15 cm height), they were transplanted in polybags (5 White leadtree (Leucaena leucocephala) extract had the highest kg). Every polybag had one seeding. content of nitrogen. Application of white leadtree extract was The pot trials were carried out in the greenhouse Randomized reported to give positive impact on Chinese cabbage growth Complete Block design with six treatments and four replications and yield (Simanjuntak, 2012). In addition, Pawar et al. (2019) were employed to address the aims. The treatments were: (L0) reported that application Leucaena leucocephala lopping 100 % solid manure + 0 mL L-1 liquid organic fertilizer (control); increased the N total and available phosphorus. White leadtree can be mixed with other organic materials to improve the 100 % solid manure + 10 mL L-1 liquid organic fertilizer (L1); nutrient content and give a better impact to the plant growth 100 % solid manure + 15 mL L-1 liquid organic fertilizer (L2); (Pancapalaga, 2013; Ratrinia et al., 2014). The organic residue 100 % solid manure + 20 mL L-1 liquid organic fertilizer (L3); of Leucaena leucocephala contains 464 g kg-1 total carbon, 75 % solid manure + 20 mL L-1 liquid organic fertilizer (L4); 41 g kg-1 total nitrogen, 11 CN ratio and 12 mg polyphenol and 50 % solid manure + 20 mL L-1 liquid organic fertilizer (L5).