DISCUSSION

A. Soil Permeability
As shown in the result for the soil permeability, forest land soil has the highest soil permeability
which is 41.00ml of water followed by river bank soil which has a soil permeability of 35.00ml of
water. Swamp soil and farm land soil have the second lowest and the lowest soil permeability
with 33.00ml and 32.50ml respectively. Therefore, farmed land soil is considered one of the
ideal soil in terms of its soil permeability for cultivation of pepper because of its low soil
permeability. Based on past researches, the ideal soil for cultivation of pepper must be low
permeability.

B. Soil pH
Based on the table 2 and graph 2 from the result for soil pH, farm land soil has the lowest pH
value of 6.7 followed by river bank soil with pH value of 7.0. Second highest alkaline soil among
the four soils was swamp soil with pH value of 7.2. The most alkaline soil was forest land soil
with pH value of 7.3. Suitable soil for the cultivation of pepper; the ideal pH value ranges from
5.0 to 7.0. This shows that farmed land soil is the ideal soil for cultivation for pepper because it
is the slightly acidic among the four soils with pH value of 6.7 while the rest of the sample have
pH of 7.0 and above. Based on a research from Indian Council of Agricultural Research in 2014,
the ideal pH value to crop pepper must be slightly acidic.

C. Organic Matter Content

By referring to the result that we obtained from the experiment, the highest percentage of
organic matter content in the soil sample among the four soil collected was river bank soil which
is 11.6%. The lowest percentage of organic matter content in the soil samples was 6.18% which
is the forest land soil. The second and third highest percentage of organic matter content in a
soil was farm land soil and swamp soil with 9.31% and 8.91% respectively. Based on a textbook
Agriculture and Fishery Technology by Dr. Jesse D. Dagoon in 2005, the ideal soil for
cultivation of pepper must be rich in organic matter. Among the soil samples collected, 3 soil
samples is considered high in organic matter due to their small differences in percentage of
amount of organic matter content which is river bank soil, farmed land soil and swamp soil.

D. Limitation of Research
The soil samples were mostly obtained from the same place due to lack of knowledge on
different locations for the collection of soil samples. This may cause various errors in the results.
Farmed land soil sample collected was just ordinary soil used in agriculture even though farmed
land soil are of various kinds. Hence, the result obtained from farmed land soil may not be
suitable for cropping pepper. When conducting the experiment to measure the pH value for the
soil sample, the pH meter that we used was not sensitive in measuring the pH value, and this
causes the reading to be less accurate due to its inability to read the actual pH value. During the
handling of the experiment to determine the percentage of organic matter in soil, we placed the
soil sample onto the crucible to be heated, cooled and weighed. When moving the crucible from
one place to another place, same of the soil sample may have dropped out due to the inability of
human to not shake their hands when moving.

E. Suggestion for further research

The soil samples should be collected from different areas for better results, the soil samples
must not be limited to 4 samples only, more sample can determine more accurately which soil is
the ideal soil for cultivation of pepper. When conducting the experiments, using better and more
advance equipment can increase the accuracy of the result. For example, a more precise pH
value, using a furnace instead of Bunsen burner to heat up the crucible that consist of soil
samples to determine the weight loss of the soil. For better results on the soil permeability, time
taken for the water to flow through the soil samples have to be kept constant in order to find the
rate of permeability of the soil samples. The formula to calculate the rate of permeability is
shown below:
3

-1

Rate of Permeability (cm min )

Average value of volume of water collected(cm3 )

Time(s)