| Summary: | Fertigation system is one of the technique in soilless culture that has gain great popularity among Malaysia farmers. Coco peat is the main medium used widely as a growing medium in fertigation system. However, coco peat production is limited in Malaysia, especially in
Sabah. This problem has caused fertigation entrepreneurs in Sabah to purchase from Peninsular Malaysia or import from main producer countries that are costly and time
consuming. This research was conducted to find an alternative media that can substitute coco peat but at the same time provide similar or greater output as the cocopeat. A field
experiment was conducted at Faculty of Sustainable Agriculture, University Malaysia Sabah, to investigate the effect of Oil Palm Mesocarp Fiber (OPMF) on the relative chlorophyll, nutrient content and fruit quality of chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) using fertigation system.
Oil Palm Mesocarp Fiber (OPMF) was pre-treated by boiling. Five different media were used in this research which were coco peat (control), unboiled OPMF, OPMF boiled for 15 min,
OPMF boiled for 30 min, and OPMF boiled for 45 min. The experimental design used was Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with 20 replicates for each treatment and 20
blocks. Data for determination of relative chlorophyll and leaves sample for nutrient content determination were collected 8 weeks after transplanting while data for fruit quality was collected at the first harvesting. The effect of different treatments of OPMF in every parameters were analyzed with one way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and test of significance carried out by Fisher's protected least significant difference (LSD) at PSO.OS. Results showed that significant difference observed in nitrogen (N) content and total soluble solids (TSS) of fruit with 6.18 5 and 3.18 % brix respectively, which were produced by chilli
grown in control media, coco peat. Result also showed that different treatments of OPMF have no Significant difference on the relative chlorophyll, phosphorus content and fruit
firmness of chilli. Although there is no Significant difference on those three parameters, it showed that the value produced by all treatments of OPMF are similar with the cocopeat which were within the range of 50-56 SPAD, 21-30 ppm and 1.23-1.26 kg tl for relative chlorophyll content, phosphorus concentration and fruit firmness, respectively. This indicates that OPMF have the potential to be used as an alternative media for coco peat. Thus, all treatments of OPMF have the potential to be used as an alternative growing media
for coco peat in fertigation system.
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