Tahong (Perna Viridis) Shells and Vegetable Scraps as Fertilizers: A Comparative Study in Growing Mustasa (Brassica Juncea)

Abstract

Several factors are playing a role in the demise of local farmers. One of which is the expensive commercially-available fertilizers. Fertilizers is one of the critical inputs in agricultural farming. And with this problem of the absence of cost-effective fertilizers, farmers opted for commercial ones that can be substandard and are packed with harmful chemicals that may cause irreversible damage to the soil itself, preventing farmers to have optimal crop yields. Many studies have claimed that organic wastes such as: fruit peels, tea, and coco peat are some of the effective organic fertilizers that are readily available to everyone. Moreover, the increasing biodegradable wastes produced in the Philippines is continuously rising, and one of the major components of collected wastes are vegetable scraps and mussel shells. To address the problems of local farmers regarding cost-effective fertilizers and help in converting wastes into something useful, this study was established. This aims to create new solutions that can aid local farmers and help the environment. The setups such as tahong shells, vegetable scraps, mixed treatment, and control group were observed as they influence the growth of Mustasa plant for 31 days. The data collected were then analyzed using two-way and one-way ANOVA to determine all the significant differences between the four (4) setups. The statistical tool was able to determine that there is a significant difference in all of the different setups. It also revealed that the treatment with combined tahong shells and vegetable scraps were able to grow the Mustasa most significantly in terms of its leaves’ width, plant height, and fresh weight. The researchers further recommend to use different ratios of treatments and soil to acquire the ratio that will further result to a higher crop yield.