Establishment and optimization of plant growth media for the propagation of Ficus deltoidea var. Trengganuensis

Norhayati, Ngah and Abd Jamil, Zakaria and Nur Fatihah, Hasan Nudin and Wan Mohamad Syamim, Wan Mohamad Zamri (2021) Establishment and optimization of plant growth media for the propagation of Ficus deltoidea var. Trengganuensis. In: ICAFT 2021, 02-03 Mac 2021, UniSZA.

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Abstract

Mas Cotek (Ficus deltoidea) var. trengganuensis is normally propagated using tissue culture techniques, thus required long time and under sterilized condition. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the formulation of the most suitable plant growth media for the propagation of Mas Cotek under field condition using different rooting media. Three different experiments were done: 1) to determine the effect of plant growth media on plant traits; 2) to determine the best ratio of cocopeat (CC) and rise husk biochar (RHB); and 3) to evaluate the effect of added rooting promoting materials into plant growth media; for F. deltoidea propagation. The parameters to measure the plant growth performance were total number of root, root length, plant biomass, root biomass, chlorophyll content, and stem diameter. Soil pH, soil electrical conductivity, and plant growth media biomass were also measured. All media produced 100% rooting but plant performance were differs after one month. In first experiment, the performance of Mas Cotek in six different growth media which is biochar, bris soil, cocopeat, peatmoss, sand and mixture of 70% cocopeat:30% biochar were compared. Result obtained shows that Mas Cotek was propagated best in rice husk biochar. Seedlings propagated in this plant growth media has the highest number of total root, longest root length, heaviest plant and root biomass, biggest stem diameter and highest chlorophyll content. In the second experiment, Mas Cotek was propagated in the different ratio of CC and RHB. The treatments were 100% CC : 0% RHB, 70% CC : 30% RHB, 50% CC : 50% RHB, 30% CC : 70% RHB and 0% CC : 100% RHB. Result shows that Mas Cotek propagated best in the combination of 30% CC : 70% RHB growth media. Seedlings propagated in this treatment has highest number of total root, heaviest plant biomass, and biggest stem diameter. Even though plant seedlings also propagated well in 100% RHB, but no significant difference were observed on the number of total root, root length, root biomass and chlorophyll content between plant seedlings in both growth media. In the third experiment, the growth media with the ratio of 70% cocopeat : 30% biochar were added either with control (no material added), effective microorganism (EM), Agromedia™, Indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) organic fertilizer, peatmoss and seasol. The result showed that Mas Cotek propagated best when planted in the growth media added with IBA. Seedlings propagated in this plant growth media has the highest number of total root, longest root length, heaviest plant and root biomass, biggest stem diameter and highest chlorophyll content. The findings indicate that Mas Cotek propagated best when planted in the growth media added with IBA to ensure their best performance.

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