EFFECTIVENESS OF FERMENTED FRUIT JUICE APPLICATION ON FLOWERING AND YIELD OF Solanum Melongena

Abstract

The use of chemical fertilizer might be effective for crop yields. However, it can cause pollution in a long terms period and reduce the quality of the soils. The growers tend to use chemical fertilizer as it is fast release fertilizer and able to produce a higher yield. Fermented Fruit Juice (FFJ) is an organic fertilizer which has been used in natural farming practices. It is produced by using natural ingredients as fruits and molasses. Besides being useful to promote flowering and fruiting, Fermented Fruit Juice can also be used as a foliar spray. Thus, a study was carried out to evaluate the effects of Fermented Fruit Juice (FFJ) application on the flowering and yield of Solanum melongena. The experimental design was a complete randomized design (CRD) with three treatments and four replications; T1 (30g of NPK green 15:15:15 and 40g of NPK blue 12:12:17), T2 (NPK 15:15:15 & FFJ) and T3 (solely FFJ). FFJ was prepared using over-ripe Musa acuminata fruits with brown sugar and left fermented for seven days. The first application of FFJ was done at two weeks after transplanting and the second application was done after one month after transplanting. The result shows that there is no significant difference among the treatments applied on plant height and number of flowers. However, T2 (application of NPK fertilizer together with FFJ) is effective in inducing the number of fruits. Furthermore, T2 resulted in significantly higher fruit fresh weight as compared to T3 (solely FFJ). Thus, it can be concluded that FFJ can be applied as plant stimulant in inducing flowering and the number of fruits for Solanum melongena to reduce chemical fertilizer amount by combining FFJ with NPK fertilizer.