Selection of Potential Rhizobacteria as Biofertilizer and In Vivo Application to Promote Bird’s Eye Pepper (Capsicum frutescens) Seed Germination in North Central Timor Regency, Indonesia

Abstract

North Central Timor (NCT) Regency, located on Timor Island, East Nusa Tenggara Province (NTT) Indonesia, has dry climate conditions with rainfall of 1,500 milli meters (mm) every year. This holds the potential for microbial diversity including rhizobacteria. This research aimed to select and identify potential isolates as biological fertilizers and in vivo application for bird’s eye pepper (Capsicum frutescens) germination. Selection of rhizobacteria from 20 isolates collected by researchers was obtained 5 isolates solubilizer phosphate, 4 isolates fixed nitrogen, and 5 isolates produced Indole Acetic Acid (IAA). Two isolates of CN03 and RTCR01 have potential as biofertilizers. The results of biochemical identification demonstrate that CN03 and RTCR01 isolates ferment glucose, lactose, and sucrose, are positive for citrate and catalase tests, while the molecular identification of 16S rRNA isolates CN03 99 % is similar to Pseudomonas aeruginosa and isolates RTCR01 99 % is similar to Lysinibacillus boritolerans. Meanwhile, the application with the immersion treatment of bacterial isolates on the bird’s eye pepper seed germination results in immersion treatment (K1) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa; (K3) the combination of P. aeruginosa and L. boronitolerans significantly (p > 0.05) affected germination, vigor index, length of root, and growth of sprouts, but treatment (K2) L. boronitolerans is not significantly different (p < 0.05) from the control treatment (KO) using distilled water.