Malays. Appl. Biol. (2018) 47(4): 53–59
EFFECTS OF FERTILIZERS AND MEDIA ON BIOMASS OF
Justicia gendarussa Burm f. CUTTINGS
NORHIDAYAH CHE SOH1*, NUR ADNILAILA HAMZAH2 and RAMISAH MOHD SHAH1
1School of Food Science and Technology, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu,
21030 Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia
2Faculty of Forestry, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
*E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Accepted 14 September 2018, Published online 25 October 2018
ABSTRACT
Justicia gendarussa is one of the important medicinal plants in Malaysia and is widely used in traditional and modern medicine practice. To get better production, silviculture management should be practiced considerably. This study was conducted to determine the best planting media and organic fertilizer which give highest biomass for J. gendarussa. The seedling was obtained by cutting from healthy mother plant and assigned to four media types which are topsoil, topsoil mixed with palm oil mill effluent (POME) at the ratio 1:1, topsoil mixed with POME at the ratio 1:2, and POME only. The plantlets were transferred to planting site later. Three types of organic fertilizers with four different rates were applied which are wood charcoal, bamboo charcoal and chicken manure and the rates are 0 g, 50 g, 100 g and 150 g. After six months all the samples were harvested and separated into three parts; leaves, stem and roots. The wet and dry weight of each part were analyzed. Result showed that media consists of topsoil (1): POME (2) gave highest biomass for each part. For the application of fertilizer, chicken manure and bamboo charcoal gave the highest value of biomass when given at 1.5 t/ha.
Key words: Justicia gendarussa, planting media, organic fertilizer biomass
