Enriched biochar enhances height growth performance of Anthocephalus cadamba on severely degraded Spodosols in East Kalimantan

Abstract

Tropical Spodosols are highly fragile and disturbed Spodosols remain unproductive at conventional management practices due to the inherent infertility of the soils. These soils developed from quartz rocks and are characterized by the presence of E albic and B spodic horizons. This study was conducted to determine the effect of enriched biochar application on height growth of jabon (Anthocephalus cadamba) stands planted on spodosols. Research plots were arranged to comply with a 2-factors completely randomized design (CRD) procedure – 3 levels of rate of biochar treatment (A1 = 0%v, A2 = 2%v and A3 = 5%v) and 2 levels of liquid organic fertilizer enrichment (B0 = without enrichment and B1 = with enrichment). There were 3 replicates for each treatment consisted of 28 Jabon (Anthocephalus cadamba) plants at 2.5 m x 3 m spacing, therefore a total of 504 plants were observed in this study. Results showed that the rate of biochar and nutrient enrichment gave a significant effect on the height growth of jabon plants (A. cadamba), the best height growth was obtained at the enriched biochar treatment rate of 5%v (A3B1).