The role of liquid inorganic fertilizer (11% N - 9% CaO) in increasing growth, production, and N, P, K fertilizer efficiency in sweet corn

Fertilization determines sweet corn growth and production and should be efficient to reduce costs and pollution. This study aimed to find out the role of liquid inorganic fertilizer (LIF) (11% N and 9% Ca) in growth, production, and the efficiency of N, P, and K fertilization. The experiment was conducted at Babakan Garden, Dramaga, Bogor. There are 6 fertilizer combinations: control without fertilization (P0), Standard NPK (P1), Standard NPK+2 L ha-1 LIF (P2), Standard NPK+4 L ha-1 LIF (P3), Standard NPK+6 L ha-1 LIF (P4), and 0.75 Standard NPK+4 L ha-1 LIF (P5). The Standard NPK fertilizer is 300 kg of Urea, 200 kg of SP36, and 200 kg of KCl per hectare. Sweet corn with the NPK plus LIF combinations produced plant height, stem diameter, and leaf number that were not different from Standard NPK and were higher than the control. LIF increased relative agronomic effectiveness (RAE) and the agronomic efficiency (AEi) values. RAE of Standard NPK with LIF increased by 119.77–140.32% compared to Standard NPK. The agronomic efficiency (AEi) of N fertilizer with LIF increased from 35.7 to 42.8–64.3, P fertilizer increased from 68.5 to 82.0–123.2, and K fertilizer increased from 41.1 to 49.2–73.9 kg of cobs per kg of fertilizer. The AEi of NPK fertilizer increased by 19.8–80.0%. The highest NPK fertilization efficiency (80%) was in P5. The findings or novelty of this research is that the application of 4L ha-1 of LIF saved 25% of NPK.