CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER II

Review of Related Literature

A good soil for growing plants is a loam soil. It is a soil composed of sand, silt and clay in relatively even concentration (about 40 – 20 – 20%) respectively, considered ideal for gardening and agricultural uses. It retains nutrients well and retains water. Lastly, it’s easy to work over a wide range of moisture conditions.

But plants need several key essential nutrients to grow. Without them, the plants will die. Most nutrients the plants consume in greater quantity than nature can replace naturally and we therefore fertilize to make nutrients available.

Fertilizer is any natural or manufactured material that is added to soil to increase plant growth. Since plants require primary nutritional elements such as nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus and etc. they need to obtain all these elements from the soil, they must be added to soil’s deficient in them.

The Vermi cast is one of the most effective fertilizers used by farmers nowadays. Vermi Cast is from feeding action of earth worms. It contains nutrients that are readily taken up by plants, such as nitrates, soluble potassium and etc. both of this fertilizers are usually composted months or maybe a year before its applications to the plants. But in this study, the duration of composting was not adapted anymore. The fertilizer was just bought and gathered.