The Effect of Adding Leucite Mineral and Potassium Solubilizing Bacteria on the Potassium Availability in Soil, Potassium Uptake and Plant Growth of Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) Besuki Na-Oogst

Abstract

Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) is a plantation crop as a raw material for making cigarettes. The quality of cigarettes depends on tobacco leaves as raw materials and the fuel is affected by the potassium content in plant tissues. So that, potassium affects the quality of the leaves. Potassium is absorbed by plants that come from several sources of chemical fertilizers and potassium mineral that can be found in nature. In this study, besides the addition of leucite mineral as a source of potassium is also done the addition of potassium-solubilizing bacteria to increase the availability of potassium in the soil and accelerate the process of dissolving potassium in the soil. Potassium-solubilizing bacteria (PSB) can accelerate the solubilizing of potassium into K + ions so that more is available in soil and plants are able to uptake potassium in large quantities. This study used Factorial Randomize Complete Block Design which included 4 levels of potassium and 3 levels of PSB with three replications. The purpose of this research is to know the effect of leucite and PSB in increasing the availability of potassium in the soil, potassium concentration in plant tissue, potassium uptake and plant growth of Besuki Na-Oogst tobacco. The results showed that the interaction between the addition of potassium source and inoculation of potassium-solubilizing bacteria had a significant effect on potassium availability in soil, potassium concentration in plant tissue, potassium uptake and a height of the plant. The interaction between the leucite rocks and PSB may increase the availability of potassium in the soil and give the same results compared with the addition of KNO3 fertilizer.