Growth and Yield of Chili Pepper as Affected by Weed Based Organic Compost and Nitrogen Fertilizer

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Fertility improvement of Ultisol is inevitable to increase growth and yield of chili pepper since the nutrient availability and organic matter of this soil is relatively low. Application of organic fertilizer will enhance microorganism activity in soil, thereafter will improve the availability of nutrients as well as other chemical, physical, biological properties of the soil. Most of manure releases nutrient quite slowly; therefore, addition of nitrogen to soil is expected to speed up the availability of nutrient to plant. Weed based organic fertilizers from Wedelia (Wedelia trilobata) and Siam weed (Chromolaena odorata) biomass have potential to substitute inorganic fertilizer. The objective of the experiment was to compare the effects of weed based organic compost and dry leaves compost with or without addition of nitrogen fertilizer on growth and yield of chili pepper. The experiment was carried out using Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with treatments of 200 kg urea ha-1; Wedelia compost (WDC) 20 ton ha-1; WDC 15, 10, and 5 ton ha-1 with addition of 200 kg urea ha-1 respectively; Siam weed compost (SWC) 20 ton ha-1, SWC 15, 10, and 5 ton ha-1 with addition of 200 kg urea ha-1 respectively; and dry leaves compost (DLC) 20 ton ha-1, DLC 15, 10, and 5 ton ha-1 with addition of 200 kg urea ha-1 respectively. The result revealed that composts with or without addition of nitrogen fertilizer had similar responses on the growth of chili pepper. Wedelia and Siam weeds compost at 20 ton ha-1 tended to give better yield of chili pepper as compared to application of urea alone. This result indicated that weed based organic fertilizers could substitute nitrogen fertilizer.