Effects of Fertilizer Rates on Growth and Development, and Water Use Efficiency of Ornamental Allium
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Abstract
Ornamental allium is a beautiful large-inflorescence flower bulb. It is popular to be utilized as cut flower and landscape plant. However, reports on fertilizer application and water use of this plant were rather limited. Therefore, this research aimed to study the fertilizer rates affecting water use efficiency and growth of the plant. The experimental design applied was a completely randomized design with 3 treatments, i.e., treatment 1) no fertilizer while treatment 2) and 3) were fertilizer applications of 15-15-15 (Total N-P2O5-K2O) at the rates of 2.5 and 5 grams per plant per month, respectively. Data was collected in 2 phases, i.e., phase 1) from planting to flower senescence and phase 2) from flower senescence to bulb harvest. Plant growth (plant height, leaf number and flower quality) and water use efficiency (crop evapotranspiration and crop coefficient) were recorded. The result showed that plant growth in terms of plant height and leaf number by the plant receiving different fertilizer rates were not significantly different. However, inflorescence circumference and umbel diameter were the highest, being 41.11 cm and 14.01 cm respectively, when the plants were supplied with 2.5 g of fertilizer (T2) in phase 1, with no significant difference from T3 (5 g/plant/month). Water use efficiency was not significantly different among treatments in phase 1. In the meantime, crop coefficient and transpiration rate per leaf area of the plants receiving 2.5 g of fertilizer (T2) were at the highest with the figures of 2.49- and 0.53-ml/cm/day, respectively. In phase 2, crop evapotranspiration and crop coefficient showed no significant difference among treatments. The highest transpiration rate per leaves area unit (1.83 ml/cm/day) was found in the plants given with 5 g of fertilizer (T3) per plant per month.
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