The effects of partially oil free decanter cake application on growth performance of oil palm seedlings / Siti Fatihah Osman

Oil palm decanter cake (OPDC) has a high potential to be used as organic media for
oil palm seedlings due to its substantial nutrient content. However, the residual oil in
OPDC could give negative effect to plant growth. This study was conducted to
examine the potential of hot water treated OPDC as organic media and its effects on
the growth performance and nutrient uptake of oil palm seedlings. OPDC was treated
with hot water (100°C) to remove the oil content and chemical analysis was
determined on N, P, K, Ca and Mg. The removal of residual oil was determined by
using soxhlet extraction method with hexane as exchange solvent. The treated OPDC
was utilized as organic media for oil palm seedlings under nursery condition. The
ratios used for media were 25 %, 50% and 75% of treated OPDC on dry basis. The
results showed that after the hot water treatment, the residual oil was reduced from
15% to 11%. There was also reduction on pH content by 11% and moisture content
increased up to 84.32%. Once applied as planting media, the highest growth
performance and biomass accumulation were recorded using 25% treated OPDC. The
plant height, stem girth, leaf number, leaf area, leaf dry weight, stem dry weight and
root dry weight were improved 28%, 15%, 10%, 60%, 72%, 45% and 18%,
respectively as compared to the control. This study concluded that, appropriate
amount of treated OPDC addition in growing media could improve the growth of oil
palm seedling and reduced the dependency on inorganic fertilizer.