Padi Sawah Week 3

Watering Frequency for Week 3

For week 3, we're required to water the plants twice in a week. The plants are watered with 500ml of water on Monday and Thursday.

Sieve Analysis Report

In order to determine the distribution of particles of various sizes present in the soil, sieve analysis was done. In this test, 5 sieves with varying sieve opening mesh sizes were used. The largest mesh size is 2mm while the smallest mesh size is 63µm. The soil was first loaded into the sieve with the largest mesh and shaken in a mechanical shaker for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, the soils left on each sieve were taken to measure its weight. The weight of soil left on each sieve shows the proportion of size of particle present in the soil. The results for sieve analysis is posted below.

 Soil A: Mengkabong Soil

Sieve Number	Sieve opening mesh size	Mass of soil retained on each sieve(g)	Percent of mass retained on each sieve(Rn)	Cumulative percent retained(% Cumulative passing = 100% - % Cumulative retained)	Percent finer (100 - ∑ Rn)
10	2mm	5.7144	5.0510	5.0510	94.9490
18	1mm	6.0939	5.3863	10.4373	89.5627
70	212µm	78.7790	69.6321	80.0694	19.9306
120	125 µm	8.3077	7.3431	87.4125	12.5875
230	63 µm	8.0489	7.1144	94.5269	5.4731
Pan	--------	6.1921	5.4731	100.0	0.0

Soil B: Parking Lot Kg. E

Sieve Number	Sieve opening mesh size	Mass of soil retained on each sieve(g)	Percent of mass retained on each sieve(Rn)	Cumulative percent retained(% Cumulative passing = 100% - % Cumulative retained)	Percent finer (100 - ∑ Rn)
10	2mm	7.2652	6.0206	6.0206	93.9794
18	1mm	12.1332	10.0547	16.0753	83.9247
70	212µm	35.3546	29.2981	45.3735	54.6265
120	125 µm	22.5092	18.6532	64.0267	35.9733
230	63 µm	18.1452	15.0368	79.0635	20.9365
Pan	--------	25.2644	20.9365	100.0	0.0

Soil C: ODEC

Sieve Number	Sieve opening mesh size	Mass of soil retained on each sieve(g)	Percent of mass retained on each sieve(Rn)	Cumulative percent retained(% Cumulative passing = 100% - % Cumulative retained)	Percent finer (100 - ∑ Rn)
10	2mm	6.4606	4.1879	4.1879	95.8121
18	1mm	13.3743	8.6695	12.8574	87.1426
70	212µm	71.0273	46.0389	58.8963	41.1037
120	125 µm	37.5077	24.3132	83.2095	16.7905
230	63 µm	14.4921	9.3941	92.6036	7.3964
Pan	--------	11.4105	7.3965	100.0	0.0

Soil D: FSSA

Sieve Number	Sieve opening mesh size	Mass of soil retained on each sieve(g)	Percent of mass retained on each sieve(Rn)	Cumulative percent retained(% Cumulative passing = 100% - % Cumulative retained)	Percent finer (100 - ∑ Rn)
10	2mm	6.1529	6.3760	6.3760	93.6240
18	1mm	8.2677	8.5674	14.9434	85.0566
70	212µm	20.8740	21.6308	36.5742	63.4258
120	125 µm	15.6149	16.1810	52.7552	47.2448
230	63 µm	22.6688	23.4907	76.2459	23.7541
Pan	--------	22.9230	23.7541	100.0	0.0

Soil E: 1B

Sieve Number	Sieve opening mesh size	Mass of soil retained on each sieve(g)	Percent of mass retained on each sieve(Rn)	Cumulative percent retained(% Cumulative passing = 100% - % Cumulative retained)	Percent finer (100 - ∑ Rn)
10	2mm	5.8273	3.0371	3.0371	96.9629
18	1mm	5.8416	3.0446	6.0817	93.9183
70	212µm	45.1393	23.5261	29.6078	70.3922
120	125 µm	92.5238	48.2225	77.8303	22.1697
230	63 µm	29.8522	15.5587	93.3890	6.611
Pan	--------	12.6843	6.6109	100.0	0.0

Water Holding Capacity

Water is essential to the growth and survival of plants. So a soil's ability to contain water, otherwise known as water holding capacity is important when determining which soil is the best for growing plants. A test has been carried out to determine the water holding capacity of the 5 soils used in this study. The results are shown below.

Type of soil	Weight of Wet Soil(g)		Mass of Dry Soil(g)		C - Loss in weight(g) = B – A	D - Water Holding Capacity(%) = C/B
	With plastic container	A - Without plastic container	With plastic container	B - Without plastic container
A(Mengkabong)	137.9383	131.7452	108.7375	102.5444	29.1998	28.48
B(Parking Lot Kg. E)	111.1598	104.9825	109.2542	103.0769	1.9056	1.85
C(ODEC)	170.9843	164.8161	167.5597	161.3915	3.4246	2.12
D(FSSA Garden)	105.9082	99.7771	94.7432	88.6121	11.165	12.60
E(1B)	201.0363	194.8706	194.7723	188.6076	6.263	3.32

Plant Mass

Besides measuring plant length, another way to track a plant's rate of growth is to measure its dry mass. The initial weight and final weight of plants were measured and recorded below. 

Type of soil	Initial Weight(g)	Final Weight(g)	Change in weight(g)
A(Mengkabong)	-	-	-
B(Parking Lot Kg E)	0.0827	0.0455	0.0372
C(ODEC)	0.0795	0.0432	0.0363
D(FSSA Garden)	0.0819	0.0455	0.0364
E(1B)	0.0648	0.0349	0.0299

Weekly Measurement of Plant Height

For week 3, mistakes were committed as no photos were taken as physical proof for the recording of the plants growth.

A(Mengkabong):

Average Plant Height:-

Signs of Nutrient Deficiencies: -

B(Parking Lot Kg. E):

Average Plant Height: 25.2cm

Signs of Nutrient Deficiencies: Slight yellowing in the leaves.

C(ODEC):

Average Plant Height: 23.8cm

Signs of Nutrient Deficiencies: -

D(FSSA Garden):

Average Plant Height: 26.5cm

Signs of Nutrient Deficiencies: -

E(1Borneo):

Average Plant Height: 21.4cm

Signs of Nutrient Deficiencies: -

Question from Week 2:
What conclusion can be made by this group on the seedlings and root growth of the early stages by analysing the soil pH, soil texture, soil moisture, etc.

From the results, report the group discussion.

Answer: Based on the soil pH, texture, moisture content, and nutrient levels, it can be concluded that the most important factor in the growth of paddy is the soil texture. Of the 5 soils used in this study, the plants grown in Soil B(Kg E Parking Lot) has the greatest gain in height after 2 weeks compared to the other soils. Soil B along with Soil A(Mengkabong) are both clay loam soils, therefore they both have a clay content of about 40% which is suitable for paddy as it needs soil that has high water holding capacity. However, Soil A has more sand than silt while it is the opposite for Soil B. As a matter of fact, all soils used in the study other than Soil B have high percentage of sand in the composition of the soil. Besides water holding capacity, soils with high clay content have another property which is the ability to balance out the soil pH to near neutral after being submerged in water for a while. This is helped by the fact that paddy rice plants can grow in a wide range of pH, which is from 4 to 8. To summarize this entire paragraph, soil texture is probably the most important factor in the initial stages of paddy plant growth.

References: https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_are_the_criteria_of_an_ideal_rice_soil