EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT FERTILIZERS ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF Kappaphycus alvarezii IN FLOATING METHOD

The study was conducted to determine the effects of different fertilizers on growth performance of Kappaphycus alvarezii for a duration of 45 days at Barangay Pasiagan, Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, Philippines. There were three treatments used in the study namely; unfertilized (T1), fertilized 14-14-0 (T2) and fertilized 16-20-0 (T3) seedlings with three replicates in every treatment following the Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). Results showed that fertilized 16-20-0 seedlings (T3) were highly statistically different among treatments and obtained higher final weight (FW), weight gain (WG) and daily growth rate (DGR) with 221.07g, 121.07g and 0.76% than did in fertilized 14-14-0 seedlings (T2) with 200.38g, 100.38g and 0.67% and unfertilized seedlings (T1) with 163.46g, 63.46g and 0.47% but T2 and T3 were not significantly different in DGR at p<0.01. Results revealed that farming of Kappaphycus alvarezii using 16-20-0 fertilizer could be the preferable and economically viable fertilizer that can promote higher seaweed production.