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

Abstract

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.