BIOFERTILIZER EFFECTS IN COMBINATION WITH DIFFERENT DRYING SYSTEM AND STORAGE PERIOD ON GROWTH AND PRODUCTION OF TOMATO PLANT UNDER FIELD CONDITIONS

Abstract

Low soil fertility is caused by continue crop and using chemical fertilizer. The biofertilizer contains microorganism able to increase soil fertility. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of biofertilizer dried by different methods and exposed to different period of storage on nutrient, growth and productivity of tomato plant grown under the field conditions. The experiment was carried out at the field experimental Station, Research Center of Vegetable Crop, Lembang, Bandung West Java, Indonesia. A randomized block design was used with one factor (biofertilizer) including i.e. (B0) without biofertilizer (control), (B1) liquid biofertilizer, (B2) freeze dried biofertilizer without storage, (B3) freeze dried biofertilizer with 3 months storage, (B4) centrifuged biofertilizer without storage and (B5) centrifuged biofertilizer with 3 month storage with total combination of 18 blocks. The result showed that viability of bacterium tended to decline during storage of biofertilizer but did not significantly reduce the effect on growth and production of plant. Application of biofertilizer increased total macro and micro nutrient absorption, vegetative growth and plant production. The study suggested that application of biofertilizer improve growth and production and there was no different effect between 0 and 3 months storage of biofertilizers on plant growth.