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© 2021 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

EFFECT OF BENEFICIAL SOIL MICROBES ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF CELERY IN 
VOLCANIC SOIL OF WEST JAVA   

 

 

 Reginawanti 
Hindersah1+ 

 Betty Natalie 
Fitriatin2 

 Mieke Rochimi 
Setiawati3 

 Rara Rahmatika 
Risanti4 

 

1,2,3Department of Soil Science, Universitas Padjadjaran Jalan Raya 
Bandung-Sumedang, Jatinangor, Sumedang Indonesia. 
1Email: reginawanti@unpad.ac.id Tel +62811221834  
2Email: betty.natalie@unpad.ac.id Tel +6208122387122   
3Email: m.setiawati@unpad.ac.id Tel +628122147664 
4Fellow researcher in Soil Biology Laboratory, Department of Soil Science, 
Universitas Padjadjaran Jalan Raya Bandung-Sumedang, Jatinangor, 
Sumedang, Indonesia. 
4Email: rara.risanti@gmail.com Tel+6285659290695 

 

 
(+ Corresponding author) 

 ABSTRACT 
 
Article History 
Received: 21 June 2021 
Revised: 27 July 2021 
Accepted: 23 August 2021 
Published: 13 September 2021  
 

Keywords 
Biostimulant 
Celery productivity 
Microbial-coated urea 
Mixed biofertilizer 
NPK fertilizer 
Shoot height 
Shoot weight. 

 
Soil beneficial microbes have a critical role in plant growth. Inoculating biofertilizer is 
suppose essential for supporting the plant performance and hence plant yield. The 
objective of field experiment was to verify the growth and production of celery (Apium 
graveolens L.) after biofertilizers application. The experiment had been performed in a 
plastic house in the mountainous area of tropical volcanic soil of West Java, Indonesia. 
The field trial was carried out in a Completely Randomized Block Design to test two 
microbial-coated urea formulas and a mixed biofertilizer. The control treatment was 
Nitrogen-Phosphorous-Potassium (NPK) compound fertilizer. All treatments were 
replicated three times. The celery was growing in low Nitrogen but high Phosphor and 
Potassium soil during the dry season. The field trial verified that plant height and 
biomass as well as yield of celery didn’t depend on fertilizer treatments. Nonetheless, 
this trial founded that both microbial-coated urea and mixed biofertilizer can replace 
the NPK fertilizer to produce a same yield of celery.   
 

Contribution/Originality: The study contributes to the existing literatures of biofertilizer application of celery 

productivity in the tropical mountainous area. The field experiment performed in shading field showed the increase 

of celery productivity in tropical area under either fertilizer or biofertilizer application. 

 

1. INTRODUCTION 

Mountainous areas in tropical West Java Province of Indonesia are dominated with volcanic soil where 

vegetable production is carried out intensively since decades. Low temperature and high organic matter of soil there 

support the growth of leafy vegetable include celery (Apium graveolens L.). Indonesian people mainly in urban and 

rural area consume celery as food condiment although celery is not native to Indonesia. The farmer in Bandung 

Barat Regency of West Java supply large amount of celery every day to the big cities as well as local markets.  

In order to meet the market demand, the farmers have to grow new hybrid cultivar of Celery with higher 

productivity but need higher amount of fertilizer. For plant cultivation in tropical volcanic soil, fertilization is 

always a must due to low Nitrogen (N) and Phosphate (P) content in soil [1, 2]. Farmers are experiencing intensive 

inorganic fertilization during plant cultivation to increase the soil chemical fertility.  The advantage of inorganic 

fertilizer are they supply water-soluble nutrient that readily uptake by plant roots; and their nutrients is in accurate 

Current Research in Agricultural Sciences 
2021 Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 90-96. 
ISSN(e): 2312-6418 
ISSN(p): 2313-3716 
DOI: 10.18488/journal.68.2021.82.90.96 
© 2021 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0281-2363
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3749-5081
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5208-3141
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1619-6234
mailto:reginawanti@unpad.ac.id
mailto:betty.natalie@unpad.ac.id
mailto:m.setiawati@unpad.ac.id
mailto:rara.risanti@gmail.com
https://www.doi.org/10.18488/journal.68.2021.82.90.96


Current Research in Agricultural Sciences, 2021, 8(2): 90-96 

 

 
91 

© 2021 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

concentration [3]. Now, detrimental effects of inorganic fertilizer on soil and plant have been recorded. Certain 

fertilizer composed of impurity i.e. toxic heavy metals that cause soil contamination [4]. The nutrient use efficiency 

of fertilizer in common are low, less than 20% and 26% for Urea and P fertilizer [5, 6] caused the nutrient 

accumulation in soil or wash out of root zone and percolate into the ground water. The N mainly nitrate 

accumulation in ground water may threaten the quality of drinking water particularly in rural community [7].  

Considering the more environmentally friendly agriculture, biofertilizer is recommended to reduce or replace 

the use of inorganic fertilizers [8]. In general, biofertilizer microbes such as N fixing bacteria and P-solubilizing 

microbes also produce phytohormones which is important for cell formation and development, increase growth [9, 

10] Phytohormones stimulate and modify plant physiological processes such as respiration, photosynthesis, nucleic 

acid synthesis and ion absorption [9]. Well known phytohormone-producing microbes in soil are several species of 

P-bacteria and N-fixing bacteria. Some species of both soil bacterial group enable to produce phytohormone [11, 

12]. Leafy vegetable production often use high doses inorganic fertilizers to obtain optimal production. Low N use 

efficiency of urea fertilizer [5] cause the residu washed away from the root zone, evaporated to the atmosphere. In 

order to save inorganic fertilizer, the use of biofertilizer as a source of nutrients and bio stimulants is necessary. 

Moreover, it is reported elsewhere that biofertilizer inoculation with our without inorganic fertilizer enhanced the 

yield of celery [13, 14], but low level chemical fertilizer application followed by biofertilizer decrease the yield 

[15]. The research team from Soil Biology Laboratory of Soil Science Department, Universitas Padjadjaran have 

been developed two formulas of soil microbes-based biofertilizer which is Bacillus-Azotobacter solid biofertilizer 

that coated on urea, and a mixed liquid biofertilizer composing of N-fixing bacteria and P-solubilizing microbes. 

Both biofertilizer were applied to celery cultivation. The objective of this field experiment was to verify the growth 

and production of celery plants following addition of microbial-coated urea and mixed biofertilizers. 

 

2. MATERIAL AND METHODS 

2.1. Experimental Site 

The experimental field located in Karyawangi village, Parongpong district of Bandung Barat Regency Figure 1 

at the altitude of 1260 m above sea level. The average annual temperature of Parongpong District between July-

September 2020 was 170C – 280C. Soil in trial field is tropical volcanic soil with slightly acid soil reaction (5.8), 

organic carbon (C) of 1.62%, and total N of 0.19%). The content of potential P2O5 and K2O were as high as 60.78 

mg/kg and 44.21 mg/kg respectively; while avialable P2O5 was 10.75 mg/kg. The cation exchange capacity (CEC) 

of soil was as high as 27.58 cmol/kg. In general the soil had limited amount of C and N, and low ratio of C to N but 

high in P2O5 and K2O.  

 

 
Figure-1. Experimental field in Mekarwangi Village of West Java Province, Indonesia. 

 



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2.2. Experimental Design 

The experimental design was Completely Randomized Block Design to test three types of biofertilizer and one 

control treatment, included:  

A. Inorganic compound NPK fertilizer (Control). 

B. Microbial-coated urea I (MCU I). 

C. Microbial-coated urea II (MCU II) 

D. Mixed biofertilizer. 

Each treatment was replicated 6 times. The MCU formulated by coating prilled urea with solid biofertizer 

contained two species of Bacillus and another two species of Azotobacter. The solid biofertilizer of MCU I and 

MCU II were made by 10% and 5% of Bacillus-Azotobacter liquid fertilizer respectively. The mixed biofertilizer 

was formulated in liquid inoculant consist of N-fixing bacteria Azotobacter chroococcum, A. vinelandii, Azospirillum sp. 

and Acinetobacter sp., P-solubilizing microbes Pseudomonas cepacea and Penicillium sp.  

 

2.3. Experimental Setup 

The celery cv. Amigo were grown in a plastic house with a bamboo frame and ultraviolet plastic in order to 

lower light intensity during the day Figure 2. The dimension of each plot in plastic house were 3 m x 1 m with the 

distance between plots was 30 cm Figure 2. Soil in all plots were mixed thoroughly with 20 t/ha cow manure a 

week before planting. A 17-day old individual celery seedling were planted on 8 cm-depth planting holes with the 

planting distance of 15-cm between each row and 20-cm between plants in a row.    

 

 
Figure-2. Beds in the field after soil preparation a week before planting (a) and celery grown in pots at 6 weeks after transplanting. 

 

The number of individual plants in each plot were 100. The rate of NPK as a control treatment and MCU 

fertilizer were 100 kg/ha while the dose of liquid mixed biofertilizer was 10 L/ha. The NPK fertilizer as well as 

MCU were applied a week before planting by mixing with the soil during bed preparation. The plants were then 

maintained for 8 weeks at the end of experiment, a whole plant was harvested from six plant sample in each plot 

Figure 3.  

The shoot height of celery was measured once in two weeks from two weeks after planting until harvest time. 

At 8 weeks, roots lengths were measured and fresh weight of shoots and roots were weighed. Both of shoots and 

roots biomass were wrapped in paper bag and stored in the oven for 2 days at 60 0C until constant weight. The ratio 

of shoot to root were calculated based on dry weight of shoots and roots. All data exclude celery productivity were 

subjected to analysis of variance (p<0.05). If the treatments were significantly affected the parameter, then the 

Duncan Multiple Range Test was performed. The analysis has been carried out by using software IBM SPSS 

Statistic version 24. 

 



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Figure-3. Randomized plot of treatments and sampling plants in each plot of field experiment. 

 

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 

The analysis of variance verified that the fertilization had no effect on shoot height. At 2-8 weeks after 

transplanting, the shoot height of celery grown with biofertilizer was similar with control plant Table 1. There was 

no different height between three biofertilizer treatments.  

 

Table-1. Shoo height of celery grown with different fertilizer at 2 – 8 weeks after transplanting. 

Fertilizer 
Plant height (cm) at week 

2 4 6 8 

NPK (Control) 7.6 a 13.8 a 20.5 a 38.1 a 
MCU I 7.3 a 12.9 a 20.2 a 35.1 a 
MCU II  7.9 a 14.5 a 22.6 a 37.4 a 
Mixed Biofertilizer 7.6 a 15.0 a 23.9 a 39.5 a 

Note: Numbers in Colum followed by the same latter are not significantly different according to Duncan’s Multiple Range Test (p ≤ 0.05). 
MCU: Microbial coated urea. 

 

The biofertilizer treatment also have not change the dry weight, shoot to root ratio (R/S) as well as fresh 

weight Table 2 and Table 3. It is clearly showed that the S/R of any treatments were more than 1, demonstrated 

that the growth of shoots was exceeded the roots. In this trial, the weight of celery shoot were more than three 

times greater than roots.  

Field experiment resulted in insignificant effect of any biofertilizer treatment of the biomass of fresh shoots and 

roots Table 3. The fresh weight of shoot is a main celery growth parameter for yield. Harvest time of celery cv. 

Amigo usually at 90-80 days after harvesting at planting distance 50-70 cm (between rows) and 12-20 (in rows) 

with the plant productivity about 10-12 t/ha. Many farmers in mountainous area of West Java are narrowing the 

planting distance to increase plant density and to accelerate harvest time. By adopting this method, the first harvest 

was at 8 – 10 weeks after transplanting. 

 

Table-2. The ratio of shoot to root (S/R) of celery grown with different fertilizer at harvest time. 

Fertilizers 
Dry weight (g) 

S/R Ratio 
Shoot Root 

NPK (Control) 5.52 a 1.87 a 3.29 a 
MCU I 5.50 a 1.31 a 4.31 a 
MCU II 6.30 a 1.89 a 3.81 a 

Mixed Biofertilizer 6.48 a 1.62 a 4.44 a 
Note: Numbers in column followed by the same latter are not significantly different according to Duncan’s Multiple Range Test (p ≤ 0.05). 
MCU: Microbial coated urea. 

 



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Table-3. Fresh weight of celery cultivated with different fertilizer at harvest time. 

Fertilizer 
Fresh Weight (g) 

Shoot Root 

NPK (Control) 69.42 a 6.61 a 
MCU I 66.55 a 6.55 a 
MCU II 78.29 a 7.75 a 

Mixed Biofertilizer 78.23 a 7.55 a 
Note: Numbers in column followed by the same latter are not significantly different according to Duncan’s Multiple Range 
Test (p ≤ 0.05). MCU: Microbial coated urea. 

 

The productivity of celery in field with appropriate shading was more than 22 t/ha Table 4. This surpassed the 

potential productivity of this cultivar released by seed producer i.e10-12 t/ha. If we suppose that 20% of a hectare 

might be utilized for farm utilities, then the productivity of each plots was still exceeding the productivity claimed 

by the seed producer.  

 

Table-4. Celery yield and productivity cultivated with different fertilizer based on fresh weight of a plot. 

 Yield 

Fertilizers kg/plot ton/ha (ton/0,8 ha) 

NPK (Control) 6.94 23.1 18.5 
MCU I 6.65 22.2 17.7 
MCU II 7.82 26.1 20.9 

Mixed Bio-fertilizer 7.82 26.1 20.9 
Note:  MCU: Microbial coated urea. 

 

Celery is a sub-tropical vegetable with optimal germination at 9-20 0C, and can still grow optimally at 24 0C. In 

the tropics, celery grows well in mountainous tropical areas, but the temperature during midday can exceed 24 0C 

particularly in the dry season. Shading the celery garden with ultra-violet plastic lowers the sun's intensity and 

temperature, and hence increase their growth and productivity.  

The soil in Mekarwangi Village is used for growing subtropical vegetable throughout the year by using 

inorganic fertilizer. The high content of P and K in soil due to fertilization is evidence. Surprisingly, this field trial 

verified that the growth and biomass parameter of celery were not depend on fertilization Table 1-3. Celery is leafy 

vegetable that consume more N than P and K during the vegetative growth. The soil in this experiment was low in 

N (0.19%). During the cultivation, plants did not show N deficiency syndrome suppose that in all treatments the 

available N in soil was sufficient for celery growth. In control plots, adding 100 kg/ha NPK was likely increased the 

content of available N.  Plants grown in plot with MCU uptake the N from urea and N available from N fixation 

carried out by Bacillus and Azotobacter. In plots treated with mixed biofertilizer, N availability, apart from soil, was 

supplied by N-fixing bacteria and perhaps P-solubilizing Pseudomonas.  Nowadays, researchers have been 

confirmed that P-solubilizing Bacillus and Pseudomonas enable to fix N [16]. Low N in soil induce N fixation since 

the nitrogenase enzyme that catalyze the process could not be active in high N content environment [17].  

Plant growth in this field trial was induced not only by sufficient N in soil but also by the soil pH of 5.8; the 

optimal soil reaction for celery growth. Increasing soil reaction from 4.5 to 5.5-6.5 clearly enhance the fresh weight 

of individual plant by about 141% [18]. The field experiment showed that the yield of celery irrespective of 

fertilizer treatments was similar based on Duncan’s Test. In good cultivation practice, the productivity of celery c.v. 

Amigo is 10-20 t/ha when plant grow with 70 x 20 cm planting distance. The result showed that the productivity 

was 22.2-26.1 ton/ha Table 4.  

The MCU contain 85% of urea and 15% of solid biofertilizer although the density of microbes in MCU I was 

slightly higher compared to MCU II. The celery yield in plots received both MCU was similar to the control plot. 

This suggested that the use of urea could be reduced and replace it with Bacillus-Azotobacter-coated urea. Coated 

fertilizer, include urea, release the nutrient slower than conventional fertilizer [10]. Limited information is 



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available about the release of N from microbial-coated urea, but a coated urea fertilizers reduced the ammonia 

volatilization and increased yield of celery by 14.2%-14.9% [19]. 

 Surprisingly that there was no growth reduction of plants treated with mixed biofertilizer without inorganic 

fertilizer. The mixed biofertilizer composed of N-Fixing Bacteria and P-Solubilizing Bacteria enabled to produce 

phytohormones. The positive impact of mixed biofertilizer on plant growth agree with the previous pot experiment 

of leafy vegetable Brassica rapa L. [6]. However, this trial is the first field experiment of MCU. The addition of all 

biofertilizer resulted in higher grow of celery shoot than roots; showed that they were not inhibit the shoot growth. 

Other experiments showed that either solid and liquid biofertilizer had a significant effect on celery yield increment 

when they mixed with lower dose of inorganic fertilizer [13, 14]. 

 

4. CONCLUSION 

In the field condition with artificial shading, the growth and yield of celery didn’t depend on the type of 

fertilizer. Either NPK fertilizer, microbial-coated urea, and mixed biofertilizer gave the similar plant height, root 

lengths, root and shoot biomass and ratio of shoot to root. Either inorganic fertilizer and biofertilizer enabled to 

maintain shoot growth over root, which is support the plant productivity. Regardless the type of fertilizer, the 

celery productivity in all treatments were higher about 22.2-26.1 t/ha, twice then their potency according to the 

seed producer. The results showed that for one planting season, the NPK compound fertilizer may be replace by 

another kind of fertilizer. This field experiment found that biofertilizer has a potency to save the dose of inorganic 

fertilizer.  

 

Funding: This research is funded Research and Community Service Directorate of Universitas 
Padjadjaran. 
Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.  
Acknowledgement: Author thanks the farmer’s community in Mekarwangi for involving in 
this field trial. 

 

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