Maize Yield Pot Response Toward Different Rates of Indigenous Microorganism Biocompost Integrated with Rice Husk Biochar Cultivated on Gajah Mati Series Soil

• Published in: Malaysian Journal of Soil Science
• Main Author: Lim M.R.Z.M.R.; Muzamal Z.; Kamarudin K.N.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malaysian Society of Soil Science 2024
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85204995927&partnerID=40&md5=23a1d28ae12a69fbc60c765d0dda5161

Major challenges in tropical agricultural soils included severe soil fertility depletion and decreased agricultural output. Soil amendments have often been applied to overcome this problem. Although this practice has been well proven, they are often applied solely to the soil which may be less effective to sustain the soil function especially under tropical conditions. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the response of maize yield to different rates of indigenous microorganism (IMO) biocompost or IMO5 integrated with rice husk biochar. The maize pot study was arranged in a completely randomized design using six levels of IMO5 rate in five replicates. These six levels of IMO5 were: 0 (T1), 0.75 (T2), 1.5 (T3), 3.0 (T4), 4.5 (T5), and 6.0 (T6) tonne ha–1. All the cultivated maize were harvested on week 11 to measure their yield. The results show that T4 and above had a significant difference in cob biomass, the number of leaves, leaf area, and above-ground biomass due to high uptake of nutrient by plant from the soil. Although most of the parameters measured in this study did not show a significant difference, T4 showed the highest response in the most measured parameters. © 2024, Malaysian Society of Soil Science. All rights reserved.