Promoting Growth of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) by using Trichoderma-Compost-Rice Bran based Biofertilizer

Abstract

Pollution caused by agrochemicals in the field of agriculture has been known to contaminate agricultural soils. Fungal species, e.g. Trichoderma is commonly used as biofertilizer owing to its plant growth promoting properties. Combination of Trichoderma and organic carrier, e.g. rice bran and compost, is assumed to be an optimum biofertilizer package in promoting plant and soil fertility. The aim of this study was to find the best ratio of rice bran and compost in inoculating Trichoderma to enhance the growth of tomato as model plant. Experimental design used in this study was Complete Randomized Design with 5 treatments. Pot trial assay was used to monitor the growth of tomato plants. Ratio of rice bran and compost was varied between 3:1, 2:2 and 1:3. Monitoring of plant growth was observerd during 7-, 15-, and 30-d post inoculation. Each treatments were replicated three times. We reported that the use of rice bran and compost in a ratio of 1:3 was the optimum formulation to promote the growth of tomato.