Effect of Aspergillus niger inoculant to sorghum seedling growth due to drought stress and its growth in the field

Abstract

ahmansyah M, Sugiharto A, Juhaeti T. 2017. Effect of Aspergillus niger inoculant to sorghum seedling growth due to drought stress and its growth in the field. Pros Sem Nas Masy Biodiv Indon 3: 426-432. Biofertilizer (Aspergillus niger inoculant) and hydrogel were used in sorghum cultivation to determine the growth performance in drought stress condition on seedling stage, and plant growth in the field. The aims of the study were to determine the inoculant influence to plant biomass growth and the soil cellulase activity at seedling period (21 DAP/day after planting), and continued into generative phase (60 DAP) and after harvesting seed (120 DAP). In the seedling period, biomass weight and soil cellulase activity were observed at different soil type for each dose of hydrogel. The result showed that the optimum level of hydrogel was 0.2% for soil conditioner compared to 0.4% and 0.8% levels. Inoculant significantly increased seedling biomass, while a high dose of hydrogel reduced plant biomass. The activity of cellulase in soil was being in accordance with biomass increase, but the response was different when it grew in the different soil type. The water potential (Ψ) of seedling leaf and soil increased significantly because of hydrogel augmented in soil. The cellulase activity in the field trial was high due to compost enrichment in soil. The application of compost organic mixed with inoculants gave high result on the growth of sorghum leaf sprouting after seed harvested, in which the effect of growth was same with the treatment of NPK fertilizer in soil.