Aplikasi Pupuk Organik Dan Bakteri Pelarut Fosfat Untuk Meningkatkan Pertumbuhan Tanaman Tomat Dan Aktivitas Mikroba Tanah

. Suliasih, S. Widawati, and A. Muharam. 2010. The Application of Organic Fertilizers andPhosphate Solubilizing Bacteria to Increase the Growth of Tomato and Soil Microbial Activities. The use oforganic matters on tomato cultivation is focused to decrease the utilization of chemical substances for minimizingenvironmental degradation. An experiment was conducted at Cidawu Village, Cibodas, Cianjur (1,250 m asl.) todetermine the suitable and effective inoculant to increase the growth of tomato plants, and also to stimulate soil microbialactivities. The tomato variety used was Gondol. The organic fertilizers were compost, chicken dung plus rice husk,and phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB), as a biofertilizer. A randomized block design with three replications wasutilized in this experiment. The treatments consisted of without organic fertilizers or PSB (control) (K), inoculationof PSB (P1), application of compost (P2), (4) application of chicken dung plus rice husk (P3), and application of thechemical fertilizer (NPK) (P4). The results showed that the application of organic fertilizers and PSB increased thegrowth of tomato plants and also PSB population, acid, and alkaline phosphatase activities in the soil after harvesting.The inoculation of PSB resulted in heighest plant height (108.3 cm) compared to control (72.3 cm) and also thehighest tomato yield compared to the control treatment (88.2%), and even it was higher than the yield caused by theapplication of the chemical fertilizer. The highest increase of PSB population and the activities of acid and alkalinephosphatase enzymes in soil after harvesting was also caused by the application of the PSB inoculant compared to theother treatments. The applications of organic fertilizers and PSB for wide scale cultivation of tomato expectantly playan important role for increasing production, productivity, and quality of tomato to fulfill market demand for the product