Effect of soil management and biofertilizer application on cocoa’s flower and fruit development

Abstract

A research aimed to determine the effectiveness of tillage and biofertilizer on the development of flowers and fruit on cocoa (Theobroma cacao. L). This research was conducted in Barang Village, Liliriaja Subdistrict, Soppeng Regency. The research was carried out based on a 2-factor factorial design with randomized block design (RBD) as the basic design. The first factor was soil tillage which consisted of 4 levels namely; without tillage and without mulch; organic mulch without tillage; tillage without mulch, tillage and organic mulch. The second factor was biofertilizer application which consisted of 4 levels, namely: without biofertilizer, biofertilizer 1 cc.L−1, biofertilizer 1.5 cc.L−1, and biofertilizer 2 cc.L−1. Therefore, there were 16 treatment combinations that were repeated 3 (three) times and each unit consisted of 4 plants making a total of 192 plants. The results indicated that the biofertilizer g3 (2 cc.L−1) and g2 (1.5 cc.L−1) provided the highest average of the formed fruit nipples (127), falling fruit nipples (50.00), survived fruit of 10-12 cm (77), harvested fruit (24.58), dry weight of 100 seeds (96.10) and pod index (22.80). The interaction was shown on the parameter of highest number of seeds with 2 cc L-1 of biofertilizer application (32.96).