Giving of Cellulolytic Bacteria Consortium to Produce Quality Banana Peel Compost

Abstract Compost as a soil improver can enhance fertility and crop production. Banana peels can be utilized as compost because they contain nutrients. One way to speed up the composting of banana peels is by adding cellulolytic bacterial decomposers. This research aims to obtain a consortium of cellulolytic bacteria that can accelerate composting and produce high-quality compost according to the Indonesian national standard (SNI). The study was conducted using a complete randomized design. The treatment consisted of the application of several cellulolytic bacterial consortia at five different levels, each repeated three times. Observation data are presented in qualitative and quantitative forms. Qualitative data were analyzed descriptively, while quantitative data were analyzed using variance analysis, and if there was a significant effect, further testing was conducted using the Honestly Significant Difference (HSD) test at the 5% level. The results showed that the application of a consortium of cellulolytic bacteria significantly reduced volume, decreased organic carbon (C), C/N ratio, and increased the availability of N, P, and K nutrients, with nitrogen significantly increasing by an average of 87%. Consortium V proved to be the most effective treatment, with a volume reduction of ±64%, organic carbon ±48%, total nitrogen ±2%, C/N ratio ±25, total phosphorus ±0.4%, total potassium ±9%, and a pH of ±7.