Pengaruh Bahan Penahan Air Aquasorb Terhadap Pertumbuhan Jati

Abstract

Introduction. Teak (Tectona grandis Linn.f) is one of the tree species which is widely cultivated in Java. In large scale teak plantation forest development, climate is one of the important factor influencing the success of planting. Tight schedule of planting and erratic weather condition constitute the constraint for achieving successful planting. One alternative for overcoming the constraint is by planting outside the rainy season. Planting outside the rainy season when the water supply is very limited, assisted by the use of aquasorb, has not been known, in terms of its success rate. The use of aquasorb for planting forestry planting stocks, particularly that of teak, has never been practiced in Indonesia. Therefore, there is a need for research to learn the extent that aquasorb effect could improve the survival percentage of teak planting stocks when they are planted outside the rainy season. Materials and method. The research was conducted from May 2008 through Agustus 2008, in the green house of Faculty of Forestry (IPB). The research consisted of three series of experiments. The experimental designs used were Block Randomized Design for Experiment 1, Factorial Completely Randomized Design for Experiment 2, and Completely Randomized Design for Experiment 3. In Experiment 1, there were 5 treatments with 3 replications, and each replication consisted of 4 planting stocks, so there were 60 experimental units. In Experiment 2, there were 2 factors, namely factors of leaf and aquasorb. Altogether, in Experiment 2, there were 16 treatments, and each treatment combination consisted of 3 replications. Each replication consisted of 3 planting stocks, so that altogether, there were 144 experimental units. In Experiment 3, there were 5 treatments with 3 replications, and each replication consisted of 3 planting stocks, so that altogether there were 45 experimental units. The observed variables were among other things, survival percentage; duration for reaching initial, intermediate and final wilting; percent of dry leaves, and percent of leaf shedding. Analysis of Variance was performed by using program of Minitab 14 and SAS for Duncan advanced test. Results and Conclusion. Results of Experiment 1 showed that the use of aquasorb with concentration of 600 ml, had the highest average of survival percentage (41.67 %) at 4 weeks after planting (WAP) as compared with control. In Experiment 2, application of aquasorb with concentration of 400 ml, accompanied with leaf cutting (reduction) by 70 % could increase the survival percentage of teak planting stocks, up to 100 %, and reduced the dry leaf percent to 54.91 % as compared with control. Leaf reduction by 70 and 90 % and the use of Aquasorb of 400 ml could prolong the duration to reach final wilting, up to 15 – 16 days. Results of Experiment 3 showed that application of aquasorb with different type, at the same concentration, had significant effect up to 5 WAP, and did not have significant effect at 6 WAP. The use of aquasorb of type A at concentration of 400 ml, exhibited higher percent of survival (67 %) as compared with the use of aquasorb of type B. Conclusion from this research was that the use of aquasorb with higher concentration could increase the survival percentage of teak planting stocks, as compared with control (without aquasorb). Experiment 3 showed that the use of aquasorb could maintain the optimal survival percentage of planting stocks, only up to 5 WAP.