THE EFFECT OF WATER CONTENT AND C/N RATIO OF A MIXTURE OF COW DUNG AND ALBIZZIA FALCATA SAWDUST ON THE CHANGE OF PH AND TEMPERATURE OF COMPOSTING PROCESS AND THE NUTRIENT CONTENT OF RESULTED LIQUID ORGANIC FERTILIZER
Abstract
This study was performed at the Faculty of Animal Husbandry, Universitas Padjadjaran Indonesia. It was aimed to identify (a) the effect of water content and C/N ratio of a mixture of cow dung and Albizzia falcata sawdust on the change of pH and temperature of composting process, (b) water content that provides the highest change in pH and temperature of composting process, (c) to what extent the C/N ratio of the mixture influence the concentration of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in the resulted liquid organic fertilizer. This study was divided into two experiments. The first experiment was done in order to answer the first two aims, a solid state composting process. It was based on completely randomized design (CRD) with three water content treatments, namely WT1 = 40%, WT2 = 50% and WT3 = 60%. Each treatment was replicated for 6 times. The second experiment was carried out for answering the last aim of the study, converting the solid compost into liquid fertilizer. This experiment was also based on CRD with three C/N ratio treatments, i.e. CN1 = 20, CN2 = 25 and CN3 = 30. The treatments were performed in six replications. Tukey test was then performed to determine the difference among treatments of the consecutive experiments. The result of the study shows that water contents of the mixture are not significantly influencing the change of pH and temperature of composting process. However, the highest change of the pH and temperature were obtained from water content of 40%. Furthermore, the result of the study shows that CN3 provides significant effect on nitrogen and phosphorus contents of liquid organic fertilizer in comparison to CN1, but not to CN2. Finally, only CN3 provides significant effect on potassium content of the fertilizer.
