Increasing the growth and yield of eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) plants by applying chicken manure and PGPR (Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria) on ultisols

Abstract

The land's low physical and chemical carrying capacity has impacted the low productivity of eggplant plants grown in ultisol soil. Therefore, using chicken manure and PGPR is highly recommended to increase plant productivity. This research aims to determine the appropriate chicken manure dosage and PGPR concentration for cultivating eggplant plants on this land. The experiment used a split-plot design by placing chicken manure doses in the main plot: (0%, 50%, and 100%) of the recommended dose. PGPR concentrations were placed in sub-plots: (without PGPR, 15 ml PGPR/L of water, and 30 ml PGPR/L of water). The experiment was repeated three times. F test at 5% is used to determine the existence of interactions or significant effect of treatment. Differences between treatments were considered Honestly Significant Difference (HSD) value at 5%. The study showed no significant interaction between chicken manure and PGPR on all observed growth and harvest parameters. However, each factor had a significant effect on growth observations: fresh root weight/plant, leaf area, and total dry weight of plants, and yield observations: fresh weight of fruit consumed/harvest plot and fresh weight of fruit consumed/ha. Application of 100% chicken manure can increase the fresh weight of eggplant fruit/ha by 7.27 t ha-1 (38.55%) and 18.47 t ha-1 (233.72%) from 50% and 0% chicken manure. In the PGPR treatment, to get a fresh weight of the maximum consumption fruit of 19.62 tons ha-1 requires the optimum PGPR concentration of 3.11 ml/ L water.