The effect of different growing medium combination on growth and yield of Boesenbergia rotunda

Boesenbergia rotunda or Temu kunci is a herb belonging to the Zingiberaceae family and wildly cultivated in Malaysia by rhizome. Temu kunci rhizome is commonly used in traditional medicines to cure stomach aches, promote appetite and gout. Due to its potential to be developed as one of Malaysia’s herbal products, information on their agronomic requirements is needed. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of the different combination of the growing medium on B. rotunda growth and yield. Topsoil, peat moss, sand and chicken manure with four different ratios have been used as a planting medium. The potted plant was arranged in a randomised, complete block design with five replicates. The growth parameter was measured during harvesting time. The results showed that there was no significant difference in plant height, number of leaves, tiller number, fresh and dry shoot weight and fresh and dry root and rhizome weight in all treatments. It can be argued that this is because B. rotunda can be grown in different kinds of planting medium. Based on this study, it was suggested that topsoil be used for Temu Kunci planting, since it is easily obtained and requires less money

Analysis of Soil Nitrate Ion Selective Electrode (ISE) Sensor using Arduino UNO

The ecological concern over soil and groundwater pollution caused by agricultural activities has led to the growing interest in precision agriculture. One of the most common types of fertilizer is the nitrogen fertilizer which needed in major amount for plant growth. Over fertilization will contaminate soil and groundwater which can have adverse effect on environment and human health. The main purpose of this research is to measure soil nitrate concentration using nitrate ion-selective electrode (ISE) sensor and Arduino programmable microcontroller. The optimum soil-to-water ratio and the effect of soil solution clarity will be investigated. Standard sampling procedures was conducted at oil palm plantation area, Felda Bukit Goh, Pahang, Malaysia. Validation of the results were carried out in the laboratory. The recorded data indicated accurate readings for Nitrate ISE Arduino was R² = 0.84. The soil-to-water ratio of 1:2.5 was observed as an optimal proportion ISE analysis. A clear soil solution was crucial for maintaining the accuracy of ISE sensor, to avoid declining of 46.2% accuracy. These results could assist researchers and farmers to accurately monitor the concentrations of soil nitrate on the field effectively as well as an insight to ISE sensor with Arduino technologies

Determination and mapping of calcium and magnesium contents using geostatistical techniques in oil palm plantation related to basal stem rot disease

The basal stem rot (BSR) disease has been reported as the most destructive disease of oil palms in Southeast Asia. Adequate contents of nutrient in soil and leaf helps improve the plant health and its productivity. This study aims to determine the spatial variability of calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) in soil and leaf collected in BSR infected oil palm plantation. The exchangeable calcium (Ca ex) and magnesium (Mg ex) in soil were found low in the study area ranged from 0.03-0.50% and 0.06- 0.35%, respectively. The Ca and Mg content in leaf were also low ranged from 0.09-0.60%, and 0.03-1.87%, respectively. The Ca ex in soil of both blocks showed a negative significant correlation with the disease at p<0.01. However, only Ca content in leaves of one study site (Block 2) showed a negative significant correlations with the disease (p<0.05). The generated map and significant correlations revealed that unbalanced nutrient content occurred in the study area

Figs (Ficus Carica L.): cultivation method and production based in Malaysia

Ficus (Moraceae) is a tree or shrub natively originated from East Asia countries such as Middle East and Turkey. However, determination of the most suitable cultivation method in Malaysia has becoming one of the major concerns in figs industry. This is because figs can be easily found in cold and temperate regions compared to the equator regions. Therefore, this paper will discuss on the method of figs cultivation and its production based on the market demands in Malaysia. Simple propagation methods such as cutting, and layering are the most recommended method used for cultivating the fig trees. As for the production, figs are mainly processed as food such as jam, tea, dipping sauce, spaghetti sauce and dried processed food or available fresh. It is also used in traditional medicine as it is claimed to be good remedies in treating severe health problem such reducing blood sugar level and gastrointestinal problem

Predicting the variability of copper and zinc in leaf and soil of oil palm planted on a 12 ha land using geospatial information system technology

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) is an important economic tree crops in the tropic. However, more than 95 % of oil palms grown in Southeast Asia are on acid, low fertility and highly weathered soils. Optimum value of micronutrients in the soil was required to enhance the efficiency of use of macro-nutrients. Hence, to observe and predict the fertility status of the oil palm plantation area, a 12 hectare study site was used and a total of 60 geo-referenced soil and leaf samples were collected for determinations of pH and selected micronutrients of Cu and Zn content. The data were explored and mapped using geostatistic and Geographic Information System (GIS). The study area had acidic type of soil with pH ranged from 3.25-5.85. The analysis showed that almost 78% of the study area had high content of Cu in soil, while another 22% of area was low to moderate in Cu. However, Cu content in leaf were categorized as insufficient as 100% of the area was observed to have Cu less than 3 ppm. About 80% of the study area showed a low to moderate content of Zn in soil, while another 20% of area showed a high content of Zn. Zinc content in leaf ranged from optimum to high categories. However, this value did not reach the excess level of Zn (50 ppm). These results suggest that, this plantation area need a site specific management approach in order to increase its crop productivity in regards to nutrient management. As a preliminary recommendation, a zone management practice would be applied in future as it is beneficial in term of protecting the environment from excessive fertilizer

Effects of different chicken manure rates of on early growth of fig (Ficus Carica)

Fertilizing by using chicken manure as an organic amendment is a complementary to improve chemical fertilizer efficiency. This study was conducted in Glasshouse & Nursery Complex of IIUM with the objectives of evaluating different rates of chicken manure application on soil properties, leaf nutrients and the growth response of fig trees for early growth effects. The soils were amended with 0%, 10%, 20%, 30% and 50% of chicken manure on three months old saplings of cultivar BTM6 in five replications were used to observe the effects. The experiment was observed for three months. The nutrient content in T1 and treated soil showed a significant difference at p < 0.05. The T5 had the highest content of nutrients compared to other treatments. However, the leaf nutrient contents did not show any significant difference among all treatments. Survivability of the trees were 100% with T2 showed a superlative growth response with the high number of branches, leaves and fruit

Development of trace metals concentration model for river: application of principal component analysis and artificial neural network

Rapid development along the Kuantan River was long perceived as the rivers serve many communities in terms of drinking water source, domestic, fisheries, recreation, and agricultural purposes. Due to the rapid changes in technology and upsurge in chemical usage, pollutant alterations turn out to be more drastic with respect to space and time. Research on the trace metals in river water is quite limited in Malaysia, probably due to their ppb-level existence and the need for special handling techniques. Hence, the aim of this study is to forecast heavy metals concentration in Kuantan River waters using a collective of 10 years (2007 – 2016) dataset of heavy metals that provided by the Department of Environment, Malaysia. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to compute the data, which showed that As, Cr, Fe, Zn and Cd explain 67.3% of the total variance through three principal components. For ANN computation, those significant metals extracted from rotating PCA was selected and used in ANN model. The developed approaches were trained and tested using 80% and 20% of the data, respectively. Then, the coefficient of determination (R2) was executed to calculate the model performance. Out of five metals, only As shown acceptable R2 for ANN models with 0.8690 and 0.8088 for training and testing, respectively, probably due to the model’s limitation. Generally, this study illustrates the usefulness of PCA and ANN for analysis and interpretation of complex data sets and understanding the temporal and spatial variations in the Kuantan River for effective river water management

Predicting the variability of copper and zinc in leaf and soil of oil palm planted on a 12 ha land using geospatial information system technology

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) is an important economic tree crops in the tropic. However, more than 95 % of oil palms grown in Southeast Asia are on acid, low fertility and highly weathered soils. Optimum value of micronutrients in the soil was required to enhance the efficiency of use of macro-nutrients. Hence, to observe and predict the fertility status of the oil palm plantation area, a 12 hectare study site was used and a total of 60 geo-referenced soil and leaf samples were collected for determinations of pH and selected micronutrients of Cu and Zn content. The data were explored and mapped using geostatistic and Geographic Information System (GIS). The study area had acidic type of soil with pH ranged from 3.25-5.85. The analysis showed that almost 78% of the study area had high content of Cu in soil, while another 22% of area was low to moderate in Cu. However, Cu content in leaf were categorized as insufficient as 100% of the area was observed to have Cu less than 3 ppm. About 80% of the study area showed a low to moderate content of Zn in soil, while another 20% of area showed a high content of Zn. Zinc content in leaf ranged from optimum to high categories. However, this value did not reach the excess level of Zn (50 ppm). These results suggest that, this plantation area need a site specific management approach in order to increase its crop productivity in regards to nutrient management. As a preliminary recommendation, a zone management practice would be applied in future as it is beneficial in term of protecting the environment from excessive fertilizer

Spatial distribution of organic carbon contents of Langkawi island coastal waters, Malaysia

The distribution of total organic carbon content (TOC) in surface sediments of 5 zones in the area of Langkawi Island coastal waters were analysed by using wet oxidation dichromate method. A total of 51 samples were obtained using Ekman Grab from Kuah coastal area (Zone A), Cenang coastal area (Zone B), Datai River (Zone E), Kilim River (Zone D) and Pulau Tuba waters (Zone E). In this study, the highest mean of organic carbon was found in zone A (2.27±0.59), followed by zone C (2.09±0.14), zone D (2.01±0.15), zone E (1.89±0.28) and the lowest is in zone B (1.72±0.38). A relatively weak positive relationship was also found between the organic carbon content and the sediments grain size

Geostatistical assessment of heavy metals and nutrients availability in soil of oil palm plantation affected by bauxite mining

This study describes the contamination of heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Mn, Pb and Fe) and their effect on K, Ca and Mg availability in oil palm cultivated areas affected by bauxite mining activities using the combinations of geostatistic and geospatial analysis. A total of 64 soil samples were collected covering a total area of 420.21 ha by grid sampling technique. Spatial distributions of the heavy metals were determined using semivariogram and mapped using ArcGIS. The mean concentrations of Cu (138.94 ± 79.08 mg kg-1), Zn (233.55 ± 79.16 mg kg-1), Mn (847.88 ± 267.02) mg kg-1) and Fe (249 703.71 ± 101 408.72 mg kg-1) in this study were greater than the background values, the 95% ‘Investigation Levels’ determined for Malaysia soil and Dutch target values. Geoaccumulation index showed that the contamination was in the order of Fe> Cu>Pb>Zn> Mn. Semivariogram analysis of pH, Mn, Zn and Fe was aligned with the principal component analysis results, showing the contamination source originated from a similar identical source. In correlation to the nutrients, only Kex., was found to be affected by the contaminants. These results provide a useful basis for the related agencies in identifying hotspots for future rehabilitation programs