Overall Summary of Padi Sawah

Padi Sawah is a type of grass that is typically grown in tropical countries that have high amounts of annual rainfall. It is grown so that its seeds, rice can be obtained for human consumption. It normally requires a waterlogged environment to grow well along with plenty of sunlight.

In this study, padi sawah is planted in 5 pots each filled with different soils and each pot are watered with the same amount of water but each week the watering frequency decreases. This is to determine whether soil type and amount of water can affect the growth of padi sawah. Besides that, soil pH, nutrient levels along with heavy metal content are also determined so that a thorough experiment can be conducted.

The texture of the soil is obtained by conducting the Jar Test and Sieve Analysis Test. However, the results from the Jar Test and Sieve Analysis Test does not correlate with each other. For example, soil A which contains soil from Mengkabong is classified as clay loam soil based on the Jar Test but with the results of Sieve Analysis Test is classified as loamy sand soil. This is also the same with soils B(Kg E Parking Lot), D(FSSA Garden), and E(1Borneo). Only the soil texture of soil C are the same based on Jar Test and Sieve Analysis Test which is loamy sand. Of the 5 soils used in this study, soil B(Kg. E Parking Lot) has the lowest soil pH at 3.47 using the pH meter whereas the highest soil pH is soil D(1Borneo) with a pH value of 6.18. As for the water holding capacity of soils, the highest is soil A which is Mengkabong soil while the soil with lowest water holding capacity is soil B(Kg E Parking Lot). The soil with the highest amount of nitrate is soil D(FSSA Garden), highest concentration of phosphate is soils D as well while soil A(Mengkabong) has the highest concentration of sulphates.

Out of the 5 soils, the soil that produced the highest plant is soil D(FSSA Garden). This could be due to its high clay content as well as low soil pH as these two factors contribute greatly to the growth of paddy plants. Meanwhile, the soil that is least suitable to grow paddy plants is Mengkabong soil as no paddy plants managed to germinate from the soil. But the soil that has the shortest paddy plant is soil E(1Borneo). This is caused by the high sand content of the soil as well as low phosphate concentration. Phosphorus is vital to plant growth as it is a component in nucleic acid structure, therefore without phosphorus the plant cannot increase the amount of cells contained within.

In conclusion, this study shows that soil texture, pH as well as nutrient concentration plays a vital role in the growth of paddy plants. Paddy plants grow best in clayey soils with low pH.