The potential of seaweed waste (gracilaria sp. and eucheuma cottonii) as a medium density fiberboard (mdf)-based pot material for better water use efficiency in tomato plants

Abstract

The demand for seaweed of the Gracilaria sp. and Eucheuma cottonii varieties is getting higher. The increasing seaweed culture can create a waste effect, as among other things, there are variations in quality that can cause rejection in the industry, as the harvest period is not universal, and neither is cleanliness in handling. One of the utilizations of seaweed waste that has a lignocellulose content is that it is one of the basic ingredients of Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF). Polybags as a growth medium can still cause the roots of the plants to grow in a circle of plastic. Polybag plastic is not easily degraded, so that there has been an increase in plastic waste dumping. The aim of this research is to determine the water use efficiency and the tomato plant growth rate using seaweed waste (Gracilaria sp. and Eucheuma cottonii) as an MDF pot material polybag substitute. This research used a completely randomized design with four treatments and five repetitions. The results of this research showed that the use of seaweed waste as a MDF-based pot material polybag substitute had a significant effect on the different water use efficiencies.