Effects of Stem Cutting Length and Compost-amended Nursery Media on Leaf Biomass of Drumstick (Moringa oleifera Lam.)

Vegetative propagation through stem cuttings is a practical approach to obtain uniform, high-quality seedlings for intensive Moringa (Moringa oleifera Lam.) leaf biomass production. This study evaluated nursery and early field performance of seedlings produced from stem cuttings.

Two experiments were conducted from October 2022 to April 2023 in West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. In Experiment 1 (nursery, Mataram), a 3 × 2 factorial completely randomized design tested three cutting lengths (20, 40 and 60 cm) and two nursery media (topsoil and topsoil + compost, 1:1 v/v) with five replications; each replicate consisted of five cuttings. In Experiment 2 (field, Gumantar Village, North Lombok), seedlings selected from Experiment 1 were transplanted under three plant densities (25 × 25 cm, 30 × 30 cm and 40 × 40 cm) in a randomized complete block design with three blocks. Growth and biomass parameters were measured periodically and analyzed by ANOVA; mean separation used HSD at 5% (p<0.05).

In the nursery, 60 cm cuttings generally produced the fastest sprouting and the highest shoot and root biomass, whereas 40 cm cuttings produced the highest seedling establishment (86.2%) with a more balanced shoot-root ratio. Compost-amended media improved seedling growth and increased establishment (91.1%) compared with topsoil alone. In the field, higher plant density (25 × 25 cm) increased leaf biomass per unit area during the first harvest period.