Pengaruh Pencucian dan Beberapa Amelioran untuk Perbaikan Sifat Kimia Tanah dan Pertumbuhan Tanaman Jagung (Zea mays L.) pada Tanah Bergaram

Abstract

Salinity is an abiotic stress that can lead to reduced plant growth. Therefore, reclamation efforts are needed to address the problems with saline soil. This research aims to examine the effect of soil leaching and several soil amendments on improving soil chemical properties and the growth of corn plants (Zea mays L.) in saline soil. The research was conducted in a greenhouse and analyzed at the Soil Chemistry and Biology Laboratory of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of North Sumatra, and the Medan Laboratory of the Agricultural Standardization and Instrumentation Agency (BSIP), from February to July 2025. This research uses a Randomized Block Design (RBD) with two treatment factors and three replications. The first factor is soil leaching, which consists of two treatments: soil leaching 3 times (P1) and soil leaching 6 times (P2). The second factor is ameliorant, which consists of seven treatments: without ameliorant (A0), coconut shell biochar 250 g/polybag (A1), coconut shell biochar 500 g/polybag (A2), chicken manure 250 g/polybag (A3), chicken manure 500 g/polybag (A4), zeolite 250 g/polybag (A5), and zeolite 500 g/polybag (A6). The research results show that soil leaching has a very significant effect on soil Mg-dd. However, it has no significant effect on plant vegetative growth, soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC), and soil Ca-dd. The application of ameliorants significantly affects soil electrical conductivity (EC) and has a very significant effect on soil Ca-dd, but has no significant effect on plant height, stem diameter, leaf number, shoot and root dry weight, soil pH, and soil Mg-dd. The interaction between soil leaching and the application of ameliorants showed a significant effect on the plant root dry weight parameter. The best corn plant growth was produced by the combination of soil leaching treatment and 250g/polybag zeolite ameliorant.