Composting of Corn By-Product using EM4 and Microorganism Azotobacter sp. as Composting Organism

Abstract

Nowadays the organic compost is very important for farmers because of its environmentally friendly character. However, the production technology of organic compost is not well-known yet for the farmers. This study aimed to utilize corn by-product compost as fertilizer for plants growth. Composting process was accelerated by addition of composting organism called as effective microorganism (EM4) and Azotobacter. Their composition were EM4: Azotobacter 1:1 ; 1:3, EM4 alone, Azotobacter alone and without addition of composting microorganism. The composting process was conducted in a composter for 15 d and mixed three times per day. The process should be carried out under controlled aerobic conditions. The observed parameters were carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphor (P), and potassium (K) content. The parameters was measured before and after composting process. The resulted compost were applied to the growing corns, chilis, and tomatoes as fertilizer. The result showed that the best compost was obtained on 3:1 composition of EM4 : Azotobacter. This composition was able to reduce 0.74 % carbon content, and increase 151.46 %, 147.9 %, and 238.42 % of N, P, K content respectively. Moreover this particular compost was able to bring 3.75 mm corn stem and 1.0 mm corn leaf growth per day, lead to harvesting of  two tomatoes and eight chilie