Biodegradable Pot (Biopot) Made from Water Hyacinth and Banana Pseudostem as Polybag Substitution for Cocoa (Theobroma Cacao L.) Nursery

Abstract

The plant nursery is an important cultivation phase to improve the quality of cocoa. However, the conventional nursery container namely polybag has the potential risk to contaminate the environment if the waste is wrongfully handled. A biodegradable pot (BioPot) is a satisfactory alternative nursery container considering its plantable and degradable characteristics. This study aimed to investigate the effect of BioPot compositions and size to support the growth of cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) seedling as polybag substitution. This research was conducted using a randomized complete design with 1 control (polybag) and 15 treatments combination. The treatments consisted of 5 BioPot compositions (percentage of water hyacinth and banana pseudostem range from 30-70%) and 3 BioPot size (width 5,5 cm and length range from 10.5-11.5 cm). The seedling growth data were analyzed using ANOVA then by means using HSD (Tukey test) and Dunnet test at a 5%. The results showed that the several BioPot compositions and size produced equal seedling quality to polybag and not statistically different based on seedling growth variables. This finding confirmed that the all tested BioPot compositions and size in this study, customized and adjusted according to the raw aterials availability, can be used as polybag substitutes for cocoa nurseries. The implication of this study is the use of BioPot for seedling container that support environmentally sustainable agriculture especially in plant nurseries.