Optimizing of Calcium and Magnesium Fertilizer for Oil Palm Seedling (Elaesis guineensis Jacq.)

Abstract

The agricultural commodity is one of the mainstays as an effort to increase the country's foreign exchange apart from the sector of oil and gas. One of the priority for the development is oil palm. Productivity of oil palm is the highest compared to other vegetable oil crops. Productivity of palm oil is 4.08 tons Crude Palm Oil per hectare, while the productivity of vegetable oils from soybean, sunflower and rapeseed are 0.38, 0.6, and 0.75 tons per hectare, respectively. In addition, oil palm is an annual plant while plants other vegetable is seasonal plant so that cultivation oil palm is more energy efficient and require less land to achieve the same production quantities compared other vegetable oils. The oil palm can grow well and is highly production. To support it‟s growth and yield, it requires of fertilizer such as calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg). The important of calcium in the development of plant such as formation of the cell wall and plasma membrane, cell growth and secretion. In addition, calcium participates in physiological processes and serves as secondary messenger within the cytosol as well as among different cell organs. Magnesium is the third most required macronutrient element by the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis jacq) for its growth and development. Magnesium is a component of numerous enzymatic systems and a major element of chlorophyll. It is also an active element with phosphorus in the synthesis of reserve lipids in the oil palm. This experiment has three main objectives that include the following : (1) to know the calcium and magnesium fertilizer response for oil palm seedling, (2) to study the interaction between calcium and magnesium fertilizers for oil palm seedling, and (3) to determine the optimum rates of calcium and magnesium fertilizer for oil palm seedling. This experiment was conducted at IPB Experimental Station Cikabayan, Dramaga, Bogor, from December 2011 to November 2012. The experimental design used was factorial randomized block design with three replications. The first factor was Ca fertilizer rates i.e. 0, 5, 10 and 20 g CaCO3 plant-1. The second factor was Mg fertilizer rates i.e. 0, 24, 48 and 96 g MgSO4 plant-1. The results showed that calcium did not affect, whereas magnesium fertilizer affected vegetative and physiology variables in oil palm seedling. Based on the plant height, number of leaves and stem diameter, the rates of magnesium fertilizer recommendations for 8 months oil palm seedlings in the main nursery was 58 g plant-1. Rate of Mg fertilizer every month should be applied: 2.0, 2.0, 8.0, 9.3, 8.8, 9.3, 9.4 and 9.3 g MgS04 plants-1. Unfortunately, the optimum rate of calcium fertilizer can not be determined in this research.