Growth of cacao seedlings on application of several sawdust compost composition enriched with Trichoderma sp.

Abstract

The study aimed to determine the response of the growth of cocoa seedlings in a variety of sawdust compost and Trichoderma sp compositions. The research was conducted in the form of a factorial experiment arranged with Randomized Block Design (RBD) with 2 factors. The first factor was the ratio of sawdust compost to manure: 1:1, 1:2 and 2:1. The second factor was the dose of Trichoderma, namely: 2 g per polybag, 4 g per polybag, and 6 g per polybag. The results showed that the application of compost composition of sawdust-manure 1: 2 gave the best results in several variables namely plant height (34.64 cm), number of leaves (21.24 strands), stem diameter (8.56 mm), chlorophyll index (138.76), total chlorophyll a (518.77 μmol.m-2), amount of b-chlorophyll (347.42 μmol.m-2), and total leaf chlorophyll (775.12 μmol.m-2). Application of Trichoderma sp. with a dose of 4 g per polybag gave the highest results in parameters of plant height (33.57 cm), leaf area (12.43 cm2) and Leaf Mass Area (LMA) (0.00334 g / cm2). There was no interaction between the sawdust compost composition treatment with addition of Trichoderma on all observed parameters.