COMPARISON OF COW URINE BOKASHI, GREEN BOKASHI AND CHEMICAL FERTILIZER ON GROWTH OF PAKCOY (Brassica rapa L. subsp. Chinensis) UTILIZING DEEP FLOW TECHNIQUE HYDROPHONIC
Titin Sulastri*, Fitri Kamelia Simbolon*, Doli Situmeang*, Marvel Reuben Suwitono*
Universitas Advent Indonesia
Hydroponic is a known technique in agriculture, using water instead of soil as growing media, where specific fertilizer were constinously added. Generally, chemical fertilizer were used in hydrophonic system, i.e. AB mix fertilizer, a combination of several fertilizer, which certainly costly. This research aim to find alternative fertilizer for hydrophonic where growth of the plants/crops is maintained. Two possible fertilizer easily found nearby UNAI campuss were cow urine, and discarded parts of green vegetables. Fermentation of these urine and green compost were the main role to produce appropriate fertilizer, known as bokashi. Pakcoy (Brassica rapa L. var. Chinensis) seedling were used from its ready for planting time (approx. 4 days) in rockwool. Hydroponics system utilizing Deep Flow Technique (DFT), A shape model. Data of pakcoy growth including height of the plants, leaves width and root length were measured every week up to 5 weeks. Data were analyzed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and continued with Duncan Multiple Range Test. The result showed that, on plants height, each fertilizer was differing each other, where AB mix is higher with average 22.71 cm, followed by green bokashi 18.74 cm, and cow urine bokashi 16.38 cm. On leaves width, AB mix is greater with average 9.22 cm, followed by green bokashi 8.03 cm and cow urine bokashi 7.00 cm. Analysis on root length, AB mix is higher with average 49.76 cm, followed with green bokashi 21.33 cm, and cow urine bokashi 21.21 cm. This research concludes that green bokashi and cow urine bokashi could be use as alternative fertilizer in hydroponics system, although AB mix gives higher growth.