Different Growth Partitioning and Shoot Production of Talinum triangulare Treated with Organic and Inorganic Fertilizer

Talinum triangulare or waterleaf is an underutilized tropical plant, mostly found as weeds, and has been used more as medicinal plant than as vegetable in Indonesia. The study of cultivation Talinum triangulare has been explored to increase the shoot production as functional vegetables. The effects of organic fertilizer applications at 0.50, 0.75, 1.00, 1.25 and 1.50 of the standard rate on waterleaf growth were tested in a Leuwikopo research station, Bogor, West Java, Indonesia. Standard rate of organic fertilizer consisted of 12.3 t..ha of cow manure, 226.8 kg. .ha of guano, and -1 -1 5.5 t.ha of rice hull ash that is equal to 100 kg urea, 60 kg -1 SP-36 and 100 kg KCl.ha . Net assimilation rate (NAR) -1 of the organic fertilizer-treated plants was lower than the inorganic fertilizer-treated with plant at two to four weeks after planting (WAP). However, the plants treated with 0.75-1.25 organic fertilizer had a higher NAR than those treated with inorganic fertilizer at four to six WAP. Plants treated with 0.75 rate of organic fertilizer had similar relative growth rate (RGR) to plants treated with the inorganic fertilizer at two to four WAP, whereas plants treated with 1.00, 1.25 and 1.50 standard rate had higher RGR than plants treated with inorganic fertilizer at 4-6 WAP. Plants treated with 1.50 organic fertilizer rate had 34.55% more marketable shoots compared to those treated with inorganic fertilizer whereas those treated with 0.50 rate of organic fertilizer had 179.54% at 6 WAP. The percentage of marketable shoots to total fresh weight of the organic fertilizer-treated plants was lower than the inorganic fertilizer-treated plants.

Abstract Talinum triangulare or waterleaf is an underutilized tropical plant, mostly found as weeds, and has been used more as medicinal plant than as vegetable in Indonesia.The study of cultivation Talinum triangulare has been explored to increase the shoot production as functional vegetables.The effects of organic fertilizer applications at 0.50, 0.75, 1.00, 1.25 and 1. 50  of the organic fertilizer-treated plants was lower than the inorganic fertilizer-treated with plant at two to four weeks after planting (WAP).However, the plants treated with 0.75-1.25 organic fertilizer had a higher NAR than those treated with inorganic fertilizer at four to six WAP.Plants treated with 0.75 rate of organic fertilizer had similar relative growth rate (RGR) to plants treated with the inorganic fertilizer at two to four WAP, whereas plants treated with 1.00, 1.25 and 1.50 standard rate had higher RGR than plants treated with inorganic fertilizer at 4-6 WAP.Plants treated with 1.50 organic fertilizer rate had 34.55% more marketable shoots compared to those treated with inorganic fertilizer whereas those treated with 0.50 rate of organic fertilizer had 179.54% at 6 WAP.The percentage of marketable shoots to total fresh weight

Introduction
Talinum triangulare or waterleaf is an underutilized tropical plant from Portulacacea family found mostly as weeds, and has been used more as medicinal plant than as vegetable in Indonesia.), β crude ber (120 mg.g ) (Aja et al., 2010 b). -1 To date there is still no available information on the effects of organic fertilizer application on waterleaf growth partitioning and shoot production.Organic farming is believed to produce better quality vegetables over conventional farming that uses inorganic fertilizers.Organically produced vegetables had a higher concentration of polyphenol antioxidants (Carbonaro et al., 2002

Treatments
The experiment was set in randomized block design with

Results
The Talinum plants owered at three to six WAP.The Corganic and N levels of the organic vs inorganic fertilizertreated leaves at six WAP were 49.3 vs 50.3% and 1.81 vs 2.42%, the P and K levels were (P<0.01),respectively; 0.27 vs 0.21 and K 5.56 vs 4.92% (P<0.05),respectively.Organic fertilizer-treated plants had a lower plant biomass (Figure 1A) and leaf photosynthetic activity (Figure 2A) than inorganic fertilizer-treated plants up to four WAP, and the plants treated with a half rate of organice fertilizer had the lowest of both.However, the biomass of the organic fertilizer-treated plants showed an increase at four to six WAP (Figure 1B).At six WAP the plants treated with a standard, 1.25, and 1.5 standard rates of organic fertilizer had a greater biomass than those treated with inorganic fertilizer (Figure 1B).Plants treated with 1.5 standard rate of organic fertilizer had the greatest fresh weight of marketable shoots at six WAP (Figure 3A).However, the dry weight was lower than those treated with the inorganic fertilizer (Figure 3B).

RESEARCH ARTICLE
This indicated that the plants treated with 1.5 standard rate of organic fertilizer had the highest water content.
The organic fertilizer-treated plants had a higher percentage of marketable shoots to the total biomass than the inorganic fertilizer-treated at four WAP; and plants treated with the standard rate had the highest (Figure 4B), i.e. 20.42% higher than inorganic fertilizer-treated.At two and six WAP the proportion was dominated by other parts of the plant.Plants treated with 1.50 standard rate of organic fertilizer had better performance than plants treated with inorganic fertilizers or with other rates of organic fertilizer for all other variables.This treatment also produced 34.55% more marketable shoots than the inorganic fertilizer treatment, and 179.5% of the 0.50 organic fertilizer treatment (Table 1).The total marketable shoots of the organic fertilizer-treated plants were similar to those treated with inorganic fertilizer.

Discussions
The low RGR and NAR at two to four WAP might be related to the slow availability of the nutrients from the decomposing organic fertilizer, and to the fact that the plants had reached the generative phase.This condition showed that waterleaf had a good access to nutrients from the inorganic fertilizer at two to four WAP.The leaf Corganic and nitrogen content of the inorganic fertilizertreated plants were initially lower than the organic fertilizer-treated, i.e. 49.3 vs 50.3%, and 1.81 vs 2.42% respectively (P<0.01).However, at four to six WAP the nutrient accessability from organic fertilizer increased.P and K levels of the organic fertilizer-treated leaves were signi cantly higher (P<0.05)than the inorganic fertilizertreated leaves at six WAP.

Conclusions
Out of all rates of organic fertilizers tested plants treated with 0.75 rates had similar RGR to the inorganic fertilizertreated plants at two to four WAP.Plants treated with 1.00, 1.25 and 1.50 fertilizer rates had higher RGR than inorganic fertilizer at four to six WAP.Marketable shoots from 1.50 organic fertilizer-treated plants was 25.67% greater than those treated with inorganic fertilizer, and it was 179.54% of those treated with 0.50 rate of organic fertilizer at six WAP.All plants treated with organic fertilizer produced more marketable shoots than those treated with inorganic fertilizer.

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Percentage of marketable shoots to total biomass (fresh weight) of the organic fertilizer-treated vs inorganic-fertilizer treated plants at (A) two WAP; (B) four WAP; and (C) six WAP.
of the standard rate on waterleaf growth were tested in a Leuwikopo research station, Bogor, West Java, Indonesia.Standard rate of organic fertilizer consisted of 12.3 t..ha of cow manure, 226.8 kg..ha of guano, and SP-36 and 100 kg KCl.ha .Net assimilation rate (NAR) -1 ; Young et al., 2005; Benbrook et al., 2008; Abu-Zahra et al., 2007), vitamin C, Fe, Mg, and P than those produced by conventional systems (Worthington, 2001).In addition, organic farming products had high sugar content (Stert, 2005; Hallmann and Rembialkowska, 2007).Vegetable quality is indicated by the content of vitamin, antioxidant, minerals and functional components including pigments and polyphenols (Ali et al., 2009).Studies on the effect of manure (Ibeawuchi et al., 2006; Susanti et al., 2008), and NPK (Mualim et al., 2009;Mualim and Aziz, 2011) on waterleaf growth has been reported.Application of 5 ton chicken manure.ha -esulted in high phytochemical waterleaf quality(Susanti  et al., 2009).Potassium was reported to be the limiting factor in waterleaf anthocyanin production; the highest anthocyanin (39.60 mol.plant ) was obtained from

RESEARCH ARTICLE Different Growth Partitioning and Shoot Production of Talinum triangulare Treated with Organic and Inorganic Fertilizer
experiment was conducted at Leuwikopo experimental farm of Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia (GPS).The soil type is latosol with at topography, light intensity of 302 cal/cm /minute, average