Judul: Growth Response of Sago Palm (Metroxylon sagu Rottb) toward Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potasium Fertilizer and Pruning Applied.
Abstrak: Sago palm (Metrxylon sagu Rottb.) is a kind of palm that can produce a starch and used as food and raw materials for industry. The purpose of the study was (1) to study the sago plant growth response to nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers that were applied singly with pruning and (2) to study the growth response of sucker that were trimmed by pruning. This research was conducted at sago plantation of PT National Sago Prima, Kepau Baru village, Tebing Tinggi Timur district, Meranti Islands regency, Riau Province. The study was conducted from January 2012 to December 2012. The study consisted of three experiments: (1) Nitrogen Fertilization, (2) Phosphorus Fertilization, (3) Potassium Fertilization and all experiments were combined with pruning treatment. The first experiment used randomized block design (RBD) with split plot design. The main plot was the pruning application with two levels, that was pruning and without pruning and the subplot was nitrogen fertilizer (N) which consists of 4 levels, namely N0-N3, respectively 0, 405, 810, and 1215 g clump-1 with three replications and pruning treatments conducted every four months. The second experiment used a randomized block design (RBD) with split plot design. The main plot was the pruning application with two levels, that was pruning and without pruning and the subplot was phosphorus fertilizer (P2O5) consists of 4 levels, namely P0-P3, respectively 0, 216, 432, and 648 g clump-1 with three replications and pruning treatments conducted every four months. The third experiment used a randomized block design (RBD) with split plot design. The main plot was the pruning application with two levels, that was pruning and without pruning and the subplot was potassium fertilizer (K2O) consists of 4 levels, namely K0-K3, respectively 0, 480, 960, and 1440 g clump-1 with three replications and pruning treatments conducted every four months. Each experimental unit consisted of 4 plant clumps, there for the total number as many as 96 clumps, so that the number of clumps of three experiments were 288 clumps. Parameter observed of the three experiments conducted was morphological characters, including: (a) the mother palm and sucker plants were maintained consisting of number of frond, increase of new leaves and increase of trunk height of mother palm. (b) the suckers are trimmed by pruning consisting of number of frond, high sucker, biomass and percentage of life. The characters include the physiology of nutrient content of plant leaves, green leaf index and density of stomata on the mother palm and sucker of sago palms. The results of the first experiment showed that nitrogen fertilization on sago plant can increase accretion of new leaves in suckers sago, whereas in the mother palm does not give the effect to increase the number of frond. The results of the second experiments showed that phosphorus fertilization increases the number and accretion of new frond at suckers seedlings whereas in the mother palm has no effect on number and accretion of new frond. The third experiments showed that pruning treatments and potassium fertilizer did not increase accretion of new frond the mother palm, whereas increase accretion new
Keyword: Mother palm, suckers sago, number of frond, nutrient content, green leaf indeks, density of stomatal