Repellent Plants and Seed Treatments for Organic Vegetable Soybean Production

The research was conducted to study the effect of repellent plants and seed treatments on growth and production of organically grown vegetable soybean. The experiment was carried out at Cikarawang Research Station, Bogor, from September 2005 to May 2006. The organic experiment was arranged in a split plot design using four species of companion plants as repellent plants, i.e. Tagetes erecta, Cymbopogon nardus, Ocimum gratissimum, Tephrosia vogelii, and without repellent plants as the main plot, and seed treatments i.e. galangal oil, Pseudomonas fluorescens, and without seed treatments as sub plot using 3 replications and conventional system (using pesticides) as control. Plants grown under conventional system had a greater fresh pod weight (6.7 kg. 10 m-2) than those in organic system (4.80-5.79 kg. 10 m-2), a lower insect infestation (19.17, 22.92 and 32.50%) and disease prevalence (9.17, 11.42 and 14.42%), at 6, 7 and 8 Week After Planting (WAP) respectively, than the organic system. In the organic experiment, the use of O. gratissimum as repellent plants resulted in a significantly lowest empty pod per plant (0.79 g). T. erecta and O. gratissimum without seed treatment, P. fluorescens without repellent plants, and T. vogelii with galangal oil seed treatment has the significant lowest insect infestation at 6 WAP of 20.67, 23.00, 26.67 and 27.33%, respectively. An organic system using repellent plants had a significantly lower insect infestation at 8 WAP (35.67-40.33%, O. gratissimum being the lowest) than without repellent plants (50.56%). Seed treatments on organic system had the lower disease prevalence at 8 WAP (33.87% on P. fluorescens and 35.47% on galangal oil) than without seed treatments (37.73%). Number of root nodules (11.6-16.7 to 7.8) and root nodules dry weight (0.068- 0.101 to 0.040 g) of the organic system were greater than the conventional system. Soybean without repellent plants had a greater number of harvestable plants (137.3), but it was fewer than the conventional system (158.3

Growth and Yield of Organic Rice with Cow Manure Application in the First Cropping Season

The study was addressed to investigating the effect of cow manure application rate on organic rice growth and yield in the first cropping season. The study was conducted from January to April 2012 in Blora, Central Java, Indonesia. The experiment was arranged in Randomized Complete Block Design, consisting of four treatments and four replications. There were two types of control treatments i.e. organic fertilizer treatments (statistically analyzed) and conventional fertilizer (not statistically analyzed). The treatments were corn biomass, corn biomass+cow manure (7.5 tons ha-1), corn biomass+cow manure (10 tons ha-1) and cow manure (10 tons ha-1) with square spacing of 20 cm x 20 cm. The organic control treatments were corn biomass+sheep manure (7.5 tons ha-1) with spacing of 20 cm x 20 cm and corn biomass+cow manure (7.5 tons ha-1) with double-row spacing of 40 cm x 25 cm x 15 cm. For every treatment, the rate of corn biomass was 3 tons ha-1. All organic treatments were also added with 3 tons rice hull ash ha-1. The application of cow manure (10 tons ha-1) with square spacing or corn biomass+cow manure (7.5 tons ha-1) with double-row spacing resulted in better performance than those of other treatments

Studi Beberapa Komposisi Medium Tumbuh Tanaman Pengganti Tanah dengan Memanfaatkan Kulit Kayu, Kulit Kacang Tanah, dan Sabut Kelapa yang Diberi Cendawan Trichodenna SP

Bark, peanut shells and coconut husk were evaluated for their suitability as growth media for container plants with Trichoderma sp. as the decomposer and Marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) as plant indicator. Treatments were composition of volumes ratio of bark - peanut shells coconut husk: 1 - 2 - 3 (M1), 2 - 2 - 3 (M2), 1 - 4 - 3 (M3), 1 - 2 - 6 (M4), 2 - 4 -3 (M5), 1 - 1 - 3 (M6), 1 - 4 - 6 (M7), and soil - sand - compost; 1 - 1 - 1 (M0) as control. Trichoderma sp..assisted the decomposition process of bark, peanut shells, and coconut husk with C/N ratio in the end of experiment ± 20. The growth and flowering of Tagetes sp. In the composition of bark, peanut shells, and coconut husk in general similar with control up to 10 weeks after planting (WAP). The best bark - peanut shells - coconut husks composition was 1 - 2 - 3, 2 - 4 - 3 was worst for Tagetes sp. growth and diameter of flowers. The highest sum of flowers was found on 1 - 4 - 6