The Effect Of Oil Palm Frond-Based Compost As Growing Media Amendment For Rubber (&Ithevea Brasiliensis&It, Mull. Arg.) Planting Material

Oil palm frond (OPF) disposal is poorly managed which leads to environmental problem. With an appropriate composting management, OPF have a potential as organic compost that can be applied as soil amendment to promote rubber plant growth. This study was aimed to observe the characteristic of OPF composting process and to investigate the optimum dose of OPF-based compost to promote rubber plant growth. The study v7as carried out by analysis of OPF composting process and application test of the compost as media amendment of rubber planting material. Composting temperature of the chopped OPF (3 to 5 cm), reached ambient temperature on day 75 with C/N ratio of 15.32. The highest percentage of compost particles-size distribution was > 4.75 mm in size. Generally, the quality of OPF-based compost has met the minimum standard of Indonesian National Standard for compost quality, except for K,0 content. The application test revealed that treatment of 20 % compost + 80 % subsoil was the optimum dose to increase rubber plant growth compared to other treatments. The final cation exchange capacity7 (CEC) value of control decreased compared to the initial value, on the contrary, the CEC value of compost added media increased along with increased doses of compost. Media amended with compost also increase P, K, Ca, and Mg contents compared to control.