THE EFFECT OF LIQUID SILICO FERTILIZER CONCENTRATION TO THE GROWTH OF TOMATOES (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

• Main Author: Maria Natasha (Nim : 11214026), Brigita
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/26153
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Tomato is one of the horticulture commodities with a high consumption number that <br /> <br /> reach 4.171 kg/capita/year. However, Indonesian farmer could not fulfill this <br /> <br /> consumption, which could be seen by the production number that only reached 916 <br /> <br /> ton in 2014, therefore Indonesia needed to import tomatoes up to 10 ton. In order to <br /> <br /> enhance the tomatoes productivity, fertilization of silica could be done to enrich soil <br /> <br /> nutrients for the plant, which has the structural and metabolic function for plant. <br /> <br /> The aims of this research were to understand the effect of silica fertilizer for tomato <br /> <br /> and to find the optimum concentration of silica that able to boost the quality of <br /> <br /> plant, then enhance the productivity. Tomatoes were cultivated in polybags inside a <br /> <br /> screenhouse that located about ± 763 m above the sea for 158 days. There were five <br /> <br /> treatments of silica fertilizer concentration (control; 250; 500; 1,000; 1,500 ppm), <br /> <br /> each had five repetition. In this research, there were some parameters that were <br /> <br /> measured, i.e. height and diameter of plant to determine plant’s robustness; weight <br /> <br /> and firmness of fruit by penetrometer; also fresh and dry weight of plant. Plant with <br /> <br /> 1,500 ppm treatment was the highest plant, with 0.00278/ day of growth rate. The <br /> <br /> biggest fresh and dry weight of leaves, shoots, and roots were from 250; 500; and <br /> <br /> 1,500 ppm treatment, respectively. Moreover, shoots’ robustness and fruits’ firmness <br /> <br /> from plant with 1,000 treatment were the highest, with the value of 1.443 x 10-2 <br /> <br /> mm/mm and 3.79 kg/cm2. Highest productivity estimation based on number and <br /> <br /> weight of fruits each were from 1,500 and 1,000 ppm treatment, which reached 6.36 <br /> <br /> x 105 fruits/hectare and 21.92 ton/hectare. These results showed that silica fertilizer <br /> <br /> could increase the growth and production parameter, yet there were optimum <br /> <br /> concentration for each parameter.