Cultivation Innovations of Growth Promoting Bacteria and the Characteristics of Several Vegetables

Abstract

Reducing the use of chemicals in vegetable cultivation is an environmentally friendly cultivation technology that is expected to reduce negative impacts on the environment. One of the efforts to reduce chemicals in cultivation is to use bacteria that live in plant roots as plant growth promoters or biopesticides. This study aims to determine the number of endophytic bacteria from bamboo and leguminosae roots that have the potential as plant growth promoting agents. The making of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) starter which was carried out in this study used the roots of bamboo, lemongrass and Mimosa Pudica Linn. Furthermore, it is applied to vegetable cultivation (Chinese cabbage, tomato, carrot and green mustard/caisim) to determine the physical characteristics of vegetables from the result of PGPR application compared to results from conventional farmers. This study used a factorial randomized block design with 2 factors. The first factor is the plant roots used, while the second factor is the length of the plant roots soaking in water, namely 72, 96, 120 hours. The data from the PGPR starter analysis results are made into a table, then a descriptive discussion is carried out. For vegetable data from the cultivation results using PGPR compared to vegetable from conventional farmer results. Based on laboratory analysis, obtained the total microbes in samples from bamboo roots with a soaking time of 72 hours were higher than the other samples, namely 8.49 x 106 cfu ml-1; pH in samples of PGPR from the roots of Mimosa Pudica Linn, bamboo, lemongrass, commercial PGPR (from Central Java farmers) ranged from 3.0 to 6.7; while the total dissolved solids content ranged from 0.2 to 2.6%. Based on the graph of plant growth in the PGPR treatment and with no treatment, there is a slight difference, not much increase or decrease. In tomatoes with PGPR treatment, plant growth was higher than without the use of PGPR, while for Chinese cabbage and caisim the growth was almost the same between PGPR treatment and without PGPR. For carrots, it was seen that with PGPR treatment, plant growth was lower than without PGPR. The results of the analysis of texture, brightness level and total dissolved solids in Chinese cabbage, caisim, tomatoes and carrots with PGPR application, the characteristics are almost the same as the results of conventional farmers. By looking at these results, it is hoped that in the future cultivation innovation by utilizing bacteria around the roots, is one of the environmentally friendly cultivation applications and begins to reduce the use of chemicals in cultivation.