Impact of an APT01 Compost on Quality Improving of the Anna Apple (Age of the Plant 8.0-8.5 Years)

Apple treeation centers is currently located in Batu, East Java, Indonesia. The village is very fertile with society'sdiverse style, which is still productive agroecologicaly (soil and climate). However, the lands used to produce crops usually have a much greater erosion of land with natural vegetation. The increase of erosion is caused by the replacement of the structure of forest tree roots which bind the soil strongly with a weaker root structure of agricultural crops [1].This is reinforced by the application of farming system that uses high fertilizers and chemical pesticides that is increased from year to year, both in quality and quantity, which in turn exceeds the carrying capacity of the land. As a result, the land is damaged and the production is declined[2].

Such these conditions force us to constantly conserve the resources and minimize the external impact. One form of such breakthrough was the addition of organic matter such as mud cake given twice a year. Some literatures mentioned that the content of organic matter in Java agricultural land is less than 1% which is ideally should be more than 3%.The interest of public to improve soil fertility is by applying compost as an organic matter. Farming communities are encouraged to convert agricultural waste such as cornstalks and grasses used as raw material to make compost. Quality of compost produced depends on the raw materials and the treatment of the composting process [3].

The organic fertilizer can be derived from agriculture waste and manure, household waste, or even from the sugarcane industry known as mud cake. Mud cake waste which is generated by the sugar mills are dirty, brownish watery, and smelly. Therefore, it needs to be composted to become organic fertilizer.

The process of composting organic materials can be accelerated by the addition of T. viride APT01 as bio-catalyst that could decrease the C:N and total organic carbon which was originally 26.8 and 37.6% to 14.6 and 22.7% [4]. This is supported by the addition of organic matter into the soil to improve the quality of physical and chemical impact on improving soil porosity, soil organic carbon and nitrogen, as well as the ability to maintain soil fertility[5].

Some minerals such as potassium and calcium presence in the soil organic matter tend to join and give rise to the production [6]. Encourage increased soil organic matter and cation exchange capacity to respond to 90% adsorption strength of the soil. Cations such as potassium and calcium will be generated during the decomposition [7]. The amount of fruit during four months after defoliation (SR4) increased from 39.08% to 48.28% by the addition of compost APT as much as 10 and 20 kg per tree while the percentage of the number of fruit increases at harvest (SPN) ranging between 58.57% and 67.14%. Age tends to reinforce the fruit on the stem of the tree resulting in fruit loss reduction. The trees network systems become stronger as a result of nutrients such asK and Ca which can be absorbed by trees. These elements are presented in the compost of organic matter APT01. Potassium and calcium is in the form of positive ions that tend to be bound by the negatively charged organic matter to form compounds available to trees. K and Ca playa role in strengthening and toughen tree tissues such as flowers and fruit so it does not easily fall out[8].

Application of mud cake for apple tree should be conducted continuously, because mud cake is well known as source of organic materials and is available continuously in large quantity. Our previous research shows that the first application of mud cake composting by Trichoderma viride APT01 after defoliation can improve the number of fruit (58.57-67.14%) and weight of fruit per tree (74.51-135.91%) compared to controls [8]. The addition of APT01compost as much as 20 kg was significantly able to further increase number and weight of apple (51 fruits and 4.91 kg) than other compost addition (α = 0.05). In the second period, we knew that the number and weight of apple in 10 kg compost APT01addition was similar with Bokashi compost addition (α = 0.05), but it has different amount of compost[9].Those productivity still need to be increased. So, the second application of mud cake should be conducted to get more information about the effect of mud cake composting on productivity (quantity and quality) of apple trees in apple farm area, Batu, East Java, Indonesia. Previous research on the use of compost in apple treeations was also carried out in Himachal Pradesh, India. The addition of compost as much as 5-15 kg per tree once a year. The study concluded that the quantity and quality of apples has increased in terms of fruit size, storage time of apple fruits, and soil quality [10]. Improvement on fruit size will have an impact on increasing the value of Rupiah. It is known in the market in Batu, Indonesia, that the apple current grades are A, AA, ABand C. Grade A contains 6-7, AA 8-9, AB 10-11, and C 12-15 fruits per kg. The price of grade A > AA > AB > C [11].