No abstract

The present study aimed to test the efficiency of Hendersonia GanoEF biofertilizer against Ganoderma disease in the seedlings of oil palm (OP) Elaeis guineensis, and was carried out from February 2020 – January 2021 in Pulo Mandi Garden Nursery, at Medan, Indonesia. Experimental set up followed a completely randomized design with four treatments. Observation results showed that the percentage of root colonization by Hendersonia sp. in OP roots reached an average of 70.6% in the treatment with Ganoderma inoculation, and an average of 69.6% in the treatment without Ganoderma inoculation. The GanoEF treatment provided higher growth of seedlings and faster growth of bowl diameter when the seedlings were 9 months old. Three instances of GanoEF application had high potential to inhibit the development of Ganoderma on OP seedlings. Endophytic fungi Hendersonia sp. was capable of symbiosis with OP roots with a colonization rate reaching 70.6%. Disease incidence or percentage of plants infected with Ganoderma in GanoEF treatment reached 20.4% which was significantly (P<0.05) lower than under the control treatment (44.2%). Meanwhile, the level of severity of Ganoderma disease in seedlings with GanoEF treatment reached 5.23% which was significantly (P<0.05) lower than the control treatment (11.1%). The efficacy of Hendersonia GanoEF as a biocontrol method for the OP pathogen G. boninense to control the basal stem rot of E. guineensis seedlings was well proven in this field study.

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The oil palm (OP) Elaeis guineensis is a robust feeder of nutrients and necessitates the adjustment and adequate allocation of nutrients for optimum growth and yields. Therefore, information on leaf nutrient concentrations during the immature stage is essential for maximal OP yield at the mature stage. Currently, in Malaysia, fertilizer by the standard practice application (Treatment 1; T1) is considered a cost-effective fertilization practice in terms of fertilization cost and the overall cost per palm oil tree per hectare. However, there is an idea to further reduce the costs of fertilizers and labour per hectare to make it more cost-effective. Therefore, the present study aims to develop a novel biochemical fertilizer by testing the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) biochemical fertilizer (Treatment 2; T2) in the immature OP. Since the use of T1 has been well established in Malaysia, the present study is to compare the leaflets’ nutrient levels (nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), and boron (B)) and vegetative parameters (frond length (FL), frond number of leaves (FNL), frond width (FW), frond thickness (FT), chlorophyll index (CI), and the canopy of immature OP by using T2 to compare with those in T1. This study was conducted 6 to 48 months after planting (MAP) at the Telang OP plantation, Kuala Lipis (Pahang), from January 2015 to December 2018. Based on the chemical levels of the pre-treatment soil samples collected at the weeded circle area in January 2015 in the two depths (0–15 cm and 15–30 cm), there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) in all 11 chemical parameters (pH, total N, organic carbon (Org C), total P, available P (Av P), cation exchange capacity (CEC), exchangeable K, (Ex K), exchangeable Ca (Ex Ca), exchangeable Mg (Ex Mg), exchangeable aluminium (Ex Al) and B between T1 and T2. This indicated that the chemical levels in the OP soils in both T1 and T2 would not be significant factors when T1 and T2 were applied. All six leaflets’ nutrient levels showed at least ‘Optimum’ or ‘Excessive’ compared to the established guideline using T1 and T2. Overall, there was no significant (p > 0.05) difference in all the above six leaflets’ nutrient levels and six vegetative parameters between T1 and T2 based on the t-Test, multiple linear stepwise regression analysis, and correlation analysis. These results suggested that rates of T1 and T2 applied in this study are enough to provide the amount of nutrients needed to support the OP vegetative growth during the immature period. The estimated cost savings for the combination of T2 fertilizers per hectare (RM 1113.43 or 250 USD) and reduction of the number of rounds (RM 133.85; or 30 USD) of T2 fertilizer application would give a sum of total cost savings of at least RM 1247.25 (280 USD) per hectare. If only based on the T2 fertilizer per hectare, the economic benefit of the total cost saving is estimated to be at least 10.6%. In summary, this study recommends the utilization of T2 as a novel, cost-effective, and alternative biochemical fertilizer treatment for better management of immature OP plantations in Malaysia.

The aim of the present study was to assess the efficacy of All Cosmos Industries (ACI) bio-organic and bio-chemical fertilizers and ACI N-Fixer (N-Bio Booster) on the paddy yields based on the field trial plots at Langkat, Medan, Indonesia. This application of ACI bio-organic fertilizer (NPK 5/5/5) and ACI bio-chemical (NPK 15/15/15) fertilizer and ACI N-Fixer tests were conducted at the paddy farm at Langkat from May-October 2018. This study employed a factorial randomized complete block design which consisted of two factors, namely: Factor I with four types of fertilizers while Factor II consisted of two paddy varieties (Inpari 30 and Inpari 32). Overall, the filled grains in the ACI treatments are significantly (P&lt; 0.05) higher than those in the control treatments that used Normal Chemical Compound NPK. Overall, total weight per meter&sup2; (368-617g) in ACI treatments are also significantly (P&lt; 0.05) higher than those (319-371g) in the control treatments. At harvesting time at 105 days after transplanting, significantly higher (P&lt; 0.05) colony counts (13-15 x 106 CFU/mL) (for ACI treatments), than those (8 x 106 CFU/mL) in the controls positively indicated higher total yields of paddy grains per hectare. It was found that the application of ACI bio-organic and bio-chemical fertilizers and ACI N-Fixer can improve paddy yields of the two rice varieties, between 16.4-38.2% (up to 5.75 MT/ha), in the field trial plots at Langkat. These commercial fertilizers play an imperative role in refining the soil fertility and thereby can increase the yield of rice production. Therefore, it is highly recommended that ACI bio-organic and ACI bio-chemical fertilizers and ACI N-Fixer (N-Bio Booster) can be employed to increase the paddy yield in this region.