Effects of organic fertilizer and water stress on Valerian biomass (Valeriana javanica (BL.) DC.) for domestication

Abstract

Valerian (Valeriana javanica BL.) DC.) has the potential to be developed as a medicinal plant. However, this plant is still collected from nature, so this will threaten Valerian germplasm, varying quality and uncertain crop yields. Moreover, the impact of climate change, such as drought and lack of nutrients in the soil, could threaten Valerian's presence. This research aimed to investigate the tolerance level of Valerian on several water stress levels and influence of organic fertilizer on the plant biomass. This experiment utilized completely randomized design with 2 factors and three repetitions. The first factor was organic fertilizer consisting of no fertilizer (control), cow manure, and goat manure. The second factor was water stress consisting of 100% field capacity, 80% field capacity, 60% field capacity and 40% field capacity. The result depicted that 40% field capacity produced the lowest biomass compared to 60 %, 80 % and 100 % field capacity. In addition, goat manure resulted in higher biomass than cow manure.