Nutrient Properties of Tithonia-enriched Liquid Organic Fertilizer as Affected by Different Types of Animal Feces and Its Effects on Fresh Weight of Loose-leaf Lettuce (Lactuva sativa L.)

Abstract

Liquid organic fertilizer (LOF) has been increasingly practiced in organic vegetable production. Cattle feces, incubated with other organic materials, are generally used as a source of nutrients for LOF production. However, other animal feces are abundantly available and might substitute cattle feces. The experiment was established to determine the effects of four animal feces on nutrient contents of tithonia-enriched LOF and its effects on the fresh weight of loose-leaf lettuce. After five weeks of incubation, the nutrient contents of LOF were analyzed. A field experiment was further established to evaluate loose-leaf lettuce responses to all LOF types. Results indicated that pH, N-total, P, K, Mg, and Ca contents, except for C-organic, in all types of LOF did not significantly different. Both LOF of cattle and goat feces have similar C-organic contents (1.02 and 0.96%, respectively) and significantly higher than of chicken and buffalo feces (0.75 and 0.70%, respectively). All types of LOF had pH ranged from 6.66 to 6.97, N-total ranged from 1.09 to 1.26%, P ranged from 1.44 to 2.78%, K ranged from 0.57 to 0.61%, Mg-ex ranged from 0.01 to 0.02%, and Ca-ex ranged from 0.03 to 0.04%. This experiment suggested that the use of cattle feces for LOF production was only replaceable with goat feces. All types of LOFs produced similar lettuce fresh weight plot-1 with the order of buffalo, chicken, goat, and cattle-based LOFs. The fresh weight of loose-leaf lettuce produced with Buffalo-based LOF was 27.5% higher than those of cattle-based LOF.