Dried Papaya Leaves as Mulch

ABSTRACT

Mulching in agricultural provides a safe yet equally profitable method of enriching and fertilizing the soil planted with crops. Most often-used mulches are of organic composition, such as dry leaves and barks. These organic mulches pose no or little damage to the soil and crops.

This study deals with the effectiveness of dried banana leaves as organic mulch for tomato. This study further aims to evaluate the results and compare it to the synthetic fertilizers. The main focus of the study is to produce organic mulch from natural materials in our country. It was concluded that banana mulch significantly promoted height increase of tomato plants and inhibited the growth of weeds.

Statement of the problem:
* What are it significance?
* What benefits can we get here?
* What it can help our environment?
* How does it affect tomato plants?

Significance of the Study :

The use of dried banana (musa Cavendish) leaves as mulch made significant effects on the height of the tomato plants, number of leaves and mass of the weeds. It yielded the highest average height of the plants which was 15.79 cm, produced the highest average number of leaves which was 33.3 leaves per plant and least mass of weeds which was 0.40 g. With these results, it was proven that using dried banana (musa Cavendish) leaves as mulch was more effective than using dried papaya (Carica papaya) leaves as mulch.