The amelioration of tin tailings with arbuscular mychorrizal fungi and liquid biofertilizer for pepper cultivation

Abstract

The sand tailings from tin mining activities, which is low productivity, could be improved for plant cultivation by ameliorating with materials which contains mutual microorganisms. The aims of this research were to investigate the influences of arbuscular mychorriza dosages and liquid biofertilizer concentration on the growth of pepper in tin tailings media. This research was conducted to determine the effect of mycorrhizal dosages and biofertilizer concentration on the growth of pepper at sand tailings media in polybags. It was conducted at the Experimental and Research Station of Bangka Belitung University, Bangka. This study used Completely Randomized Design with two factors and three replications. The first factor was mycorrhizal dosages (0; 10; 20 g/plant), and the second one was liquid biofertilizer concentration (0;1;2;3 mL/L). The pepper growth variables were observed at 16th weeks after planting. The results showed the treatment of arbuscular mycorrhizae dosage was significantly influences on plant’s height, stem diameter, number of internode, number of leaf, total leaf area, and percentage of infected root. Amelioration of 20 g/plant arbuscular mycorrhizae was the most effective for pepper growth. Biofertilizer concentration was no significantly influences on all of the variables. Combination of 10 g/plant arbuscular mycorrhizae and 2 mL/L of biofertilizer gave the highest pepper stem height, and combination of 20 g/polybag of mycorrhizae and 2 mL/L of biofertilizer showed the widest of pepper leaf area on sand tailings media.