Dr Munisamy Shanmugam
Agricultural bio-stimulant obtained from fresh biomass of seaweed Kappaphycus alvarezii was separated into organic and elemental rich fractions using nano filtration system. Both the fractions were spray dried separately in order to get organic and elemental rich product and Ntechniques and they were spray dried into powders and applied on the cassava root at 500 g ha-1. The elemental rich fraction had 84.55% of KCl in it. Spray dried mother biostimulant and chemical KCl were also tested in parallel for comparison studies. The tuber yield and starch content of cassava applied with elemental rich product was similar to its mother sample and chemical KCl and result of organic rich were similar to control cassava. Three products were tested on cassava root i.e. (1) the mother product Biostimulant and its fractions (2) Organic rich fraction and (3) Elemental rich fraction which has 85% of Muriate of potash on tuber yield and starch content. Muriate of potash has about 85% KCl, and total organic rich product from mother bio-stimulant was 12%. The elemental rich fraction (E-Fraction) had 85% KCl + 8% NaCl and remaining with other elements whereas the organic rich fraction (O-fraction) had 65% organic matter and 23% KCl 6% NaCl. The bio-stimulant of K. alvarezii was tested to contain 85% of elements, 12% organic matter with 3% moisture and it has influenced the yield of cassava to 21.45% with high content of starch as compared to control plants.