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Material Sourcing To conduct this study, lahar-laden soil will be collected from La Salle Botanical Gardens located in Porac, Pampanga. Cherry tomato seeds will be obtained from the distributor, Ramgo Seeds, which originates from Barangay Antipolo, Bongabon, Nueva Ejica while grown desmodium will be sourced from Pampanga and then will be identified in UPLB Museum of Natural History, CFNR Quadrangle, Upper Campus, University of the Philippines Los Baños, College, Laguna. Meanwhile, rice hull will be acquired from PlantCulture, a Paranaque-based shop that sources from Batangas. Additionally, before the actual experiment, rice hull biochar will be created through pyrolysis via the two barrel metal retort method (Adebajo et al., 2020). Experimental Design This will be conducted as a potted experiment with one control group and three treatment groups. The control group will consist of lahar-laden soil and cherry tomatoes. Meanwhile the treatment groups will be as follows: 1) lahar-laden soil, cherry tomatoes, and desmodium (T1), 2) lahar-laden soil, cherry tomatoes, and rice hull biochar (T2), and 3) lahar-laden soil, cherry tomatoes, rice hull biochar, and desmodium (T3). Each group will have three replications, resulting in a total of 12 pots (Angeles & Cinense, 2022). Cherry tomato germination Cherry tomato seeds will be grown in standard soil depths of 3-5 cm (Angeles & Cinense, 2022) for 5 weeks (Adebajo et al., 2022; Chinakwe et al., 2019) to undergo germination, until it reaches its seedling stage, before being transferred into lahar-laden soil. Throughout the germination process, the cherry tomato seeds will be watered daily in order to encourage their germination (Chinakwe et al., 2019). Additionally, to keep the observations consistent and optimal, only cherry tomato seedlings with five leaves will be chosen for the transplant (He et al., 2021) as four to five leaves mark the first set of true leaves in a plant which have a greater photosynthetic capacity, as well as the ability to fully provide all needed energy for plant growth (Shi et al., 2020). Setting-up of control and treatment groups Everything will be planted on the same day regardless of the group. However, a 1.2% rice hull biochar treatment will be added to each respective pot three days before the tomato seedling transfer (He et al., 2021). Subsequently, cherry tomatoes will be planted 30 cm apart from the grown desmodium for all necessary pots (Mwakilili et al., 2021; Ndayisaba et al., 2021). Measuring of agronomic parameters Agronomic parameters of the cherry tomatoes will be measured every two weeks after transplanting (Adebajo et al., 2020), ending after six weeks of observation. Parameters will consist of plant height, stem girth, number of fruits and leaf area (Adebajo et al., 2022). Soil sampling Soil samples from each pot will be taken at the start and at the end of the experiment (Ndayisaba et al., 2021). Composite sampling will be done for each group in order to create one single sample from the three replications (Ndayisaba et al., 2021). Before planting, samples will be randomly collected from the lahar-laden soil at a depth of 0-20 cm (Chinakwe et al., 2019). Meanwhile, after planting which will be on week twelve, destructive sampling will be done to collect rhizosphere soil samples from the uprooted cherry tomato plants (Angeles & Cinense, 2022; He et al., 2021). All collected soil will be sieved using a 2 mm mesh (Angeles & Cinense, 2022) which will be contained in sterile bottles (Chinakwe et al., 2019). Testing of soil samples Samples will be randomly separated into three groups for NPK and pH level testing, water retention testing, and microbiome testing. All tests will be conducted in the University of the Philippines Los Baños. Two of the tests, NPK and pH level testing and water retention testing will be done in the College of Agriculture and Food Science. The Biochemistry – Analytical Services Laboratory, Institute of Plant Breeding will measure the NPK and pH levels while water retention testing will be carried out in the Agronomy-Soils-Horticulture Building, Soils and Agroecosystems Division, Agricultural Systems Institute. Meanwhile, the Institute of Biological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, will conduct microbiome testing through bacteria and fungi count. Data analysis Measured agronomic parameters of the cherry tomatoes and the data results of the soil samples from the laboratory tests will be analyzed using two-factor factorial MANOVA. |
The various issues of lahar-laden and sandy soils are identified, along with their causes. From this, the needed interventions can be determined. As such, this study aims to address the poor soil quality and productivity of lahar-laden or sandy soil by targeting its three major issues of poor water retention, a lacking microbiome, and low fertility.
Intercropping and companion planting are both widely used agricultural practices when it comes to planting crops, with maize and desmodium being the commonly chosen crops for these practices. However, companion planting is not as mainstream as intercropping, even more so with the practice of companion planting desmodium and cherry tomatoes together. A lot of intercropping studies have been done on desmodium and maize, but only a select few on tomatoes and, most especially, the combination of desmodium and cherry tomatoes. As such, this study aims to explore if companion planting desmodium with cherry tomatoes will provide new findings or similar results as the aforementioned papers
Many studies have been conducted on the effects of biochar application on various types of soil and plants, like lahar-laden soil and tomatoes, respectively. All of which have results in terms of biochar’s impact on the following components: fertility, water retention, soil microbiome, and pH level. In a similar manner, rice hull biochar, specifically, has also been widely studied and analyzed. However, there are fewer studies done on the effects of biochar application on planting techniques such as intercropping and companion cropping, even more so with the use of desmodium. As such, this study aims to look into the effects of rice hull biochar on a companion plant system of desmodium-cherry tomato.
In conclusion, the related literature shows that there are major deficiencies within lahar-laden soil that need to be addressed in order to achieve proper plant growth. The previously mentioned study by Mwakilili et al. (2021) states that the effects of intercropping desmodium in human relation to push-pull technology have been well investigated, unlike the effects of the interaction of intercropping desmodium with the soil microbiome. Subsequently, the paper limited itself to the use of maize and desmodium for intercropping in clay-loam soil. This holds true for all the papers as they have just limited themselves to their chosen variables. Therefore, the reviewed papers did not explore the other possible combinations that could be used for intercropping and companion planting or their effects on other types of soil. As such, its results regarding the composition of soil microbes and the microbial community pose a need for further research on the effects of intercropping and companion planting on other crops, along with a possible solution in order to create a significant diversification of bacteria within the soil microbiome. With that, this paper aims to discover if the use of cherry tomatoes with desmodium instead of the more commonly used maize will produce different results. Additionally, it also aims to see if the supplementary application of biochar in lahar-laden soil will result in a diversification of bacteria that is significantly different.
Conversely, there are little to no recent studies done on the companion planting of desmodium with cherry tomatoes. Despite this, there are a select few studies done regarding the application of rice hull biochar on tomatoes, such as the papers from Adebajo et al. (2020), Adebajo et al. (2022), Hien et al. (2017), and Hien et al. (2020). Due to this, there is not much information on the combined application of the three and its possible benefits and mutual symbiosis. Therefore, this study aims to explore the various effects of companion planting desmodium and cherry tomatoes with the application of rice hull biochar on the quality of lahar-laden soil in terms of fertility, water retention, and microbial properties.
As for the majority of the biochar studies, like the study done by Wang et al. (2023), biochar was simply added to e soil. The effects of biochar with and on specific crops and planting techniques are not explored as frequently. Furthermore, a specific type of biochar is typically not specified. As such, the results of the studies on the effects of biochar are strictly limited to whatever chosen variables the previous studies utilized. Additionally, Sifton et al. (2023) found that using solely biochar reduced plant N availability and suggested the application of PGPR as a method to alleviate this deficiency. This is why, for this study, the paper aims to explore the application of rice hull biochar specifically on the companion planting of cherry tomatoes and desmodium on lahar-laden soil in order to see if rice hull biochar combined with crops will have different results.