Effects of Wood Vinegar in Brinjal (Solanum Melongena. L) Plant Growth and Functional Soil Microorganism Enhancement

Lee, Jun Yi (2025) Effects of Wood Vinegar in Brinjal (Solanum Melongena. L) Plant Growth and Functional Soil Microorganism Enhancement. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology.

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Abstract

Modern agriculture has raised the awareness of farmers to practise sustainable farming using natural products to replace agrochemicals minimising environmental impact. Wood vinegar (WV), a byproduct of charcoal production, consists of abundance of organic compounds including acetic acids and phenolic compounds. Studies have proven that wood vinegar has a combined effect on enhancing plant growth and overall soil microbial population. Brinjal (Solanum Melongena L), is one of the most cultivated crops in Malaysia due to high nutritional value. This research aimed to study effects of WV on brinjal plant growth and soil microbial population applied at concentrations ranging from 0.1% to 1.0%, with distilled water as control. WV was applied via foliar application (FA) and soil drenching (SD) method every week. Growth parameters such as chlorophyll content, leaf number, plant height and biomass were measured on a biweekly basis. Functional soil microorganisms population were counted monthly together with soil moisture and soil pH. Analysis had shown that plants treated with 0.2% WV for both methods were significantly higher than control and other treatments throughout the treatments in terms of chlorophyll content, leaf numbers, and plant height (P< 0.05). For plant biomass, the 0.2% WV treatment for both methods also showed significantly higher leaves & stems weight and total weight. However, root weight of similarly treated plants was not significantly higher than control and other treatments (P> 0.05). For soil microbial population analysis, controls were recorded to have significantly higher CFU than other treatments for Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Azotobacter, and total bacterial population after first WV application. However, 0.4% treatment shows a significant increase compared to other treatments for all types of bacteria including total population, in the subsequent WV application. This has indicated that WV application with SD method has positive effects on enhancing population of functional soil bacteria. This has deserved further research to investigate conducive properties of WV and their potentials in suppressing soilborne pathogens. Keywords: Wood vinegar; Brinjal; sustainable farming; plant growth promoter; functional soil microbes.