Utilization of rice straw waste compost to increase growth and production of local sweet potatoes

Abstract

Sweet potato is a functional food that has potential to be cultivated in paddy fields after rice harvesting. Rice straw has the potential to become waste that can pollute the environment. Efforts that can be made to overcome these problems are to use rice straw as a raw material for making compost and apply it to sweet potatoes. This study aims to determine the effect of growth and production of local sweet potato genotypes with rice straw compost. The design used in this study was a Randomized Block Design with two factors, namely local genotypes (Cengkeh Turi yellow tubers, Cengkeh Turi orange tubers, and Tanah Seribu orange tubers) and dose of rice straw compost (0, 5, 10, 15 tons/ha). The results of this study showed that the local genotypes were significantly different in vine length, tuber length and average tuber weight. The application of straw compost at various doses significantly affected the increase in vine length, tuber length and average tuber weight. The interaction of local sweet potato genotypes and rice straw compost increased tuber length. The best growth and production was obtained from the local sweet potato genotype Tanah Seribu orange tubers with 10 tons/ha of rice straw compost.