RESPON FREKUENSI PEMBERIAN PUPUK HAYATI TERHADAP PERTUMBUHAN DAN HASIL TANAMAN JAGUNG (Zea mays L.) SERTA KEDELAI (Glycine max L.) DI DATARAN TINGGI

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that food scarcity in the world will occur in 2050 due to the world population increase that is predicted to touch 9 billion people. By looking at this condition, the demand to increase the yield and productivity of soybean and maize crops is higher. One tecnology that can be used to increase the crops’ yield is biofertilizer. Biofertilizer is a substance that contains living microorganisms. They colonize rhizosphere and enhance plant growth by increasing nutrient supply so it will be available for plant use. The purpose of this study is to understand the effect of application frequency of biofertilizer to growth and yield of soybean and maize crops in the highland.The experiment design of this study was Double Strip Plot Design with the first factor is application frequency of biofertilizer (P) P0 (0 HST), P1 (0 HST+ 15 HST), and P3 (0 HST + 15 HST + 30 HST) and the second factor is type of plant (K). All treatments were repeated 3 times. The collected data were analyzed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and tested using Tukey range’s test (Honest Significance Different) at 5% alpha level.The results showed that there were interaction between application frequency of biofertilizer with the type of plant on the number of maize and soybean leaves at 6 MST, 7 MST, and 8 MST. The best result came from the combination soybean crop and 1 time application frequency (P1), that was 14,38 leaves. Meanwhile, Maize crop showed relatively same results at all treatments, the higher mean were obtained at 1 time application frequency (P1), that was 12,22. Maize crop had the higher value compared to soybean corp at plant height parameter, the number of leaves, stover dry weight, seeds dry weight and the number of seeds