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PHENOLOGY OF FLOWERING AND FRUITING AND EFFECT OF KNO3 AND H2O2 ON GERMINATION PROCESS OF AMORPHOPHALLUS MUELLERI BLUME
Dwiyono, Kisroh & Djauhari, Maman Abdurachman
Abstract
Amorphophallus muelleri Blume also known as Indonesian Konjac (IK, in short) is a
wild plant that spreads out in Indonesia especially in the southern part. The genus
Amorphophallus can also be found in some countries in South-East Asia. The IK tuber
contains glucomannan, a compound which has high economic value as raw material in
many industries such as food, drink, pharmacy, cosmetics, paper, rubber, textile, film
industries and many others. The plant is easy to cultivate. Due to the economic benefit
of IK tubers and to the easiness of its cultivation, this study was carried out to increase
the productivity of glucomannan. The current productivity is still low compared to
foreign demand. For example, in 2020 alone, according to the Ministry of Agriculture,
Republic of Indonesia, only 12 % of foreign demand have been fulfilled. Therefore,
there is an urgent need to increase the productivity of IK tubers. This is the main
problem of this research. Its objectives were two-fold. First, was to study the effect of
tuber weight on flowering percentage, flower size, and fruiting which is represented by
the number of fruits and the number of seeds. Second, was to find out the right
concentration of KNO3 and H2O2 solutions as well as the soaking time in those
solutions to break the dormancy period and to increase the germination rate. For these
purposes, a laboratory experiment using completely randomized design with three
treatments was conducted and the collected data were analyzed using general linear
model, analysis of variance and multiple comparison test. The results indicate that the
tuber weight significantly affects the flowering percentage, flower size, number of
fruits and number of seeds of IK. The heavier the planted tuber, the higher the
flowering percentage and the larger the flower size, number of fruits and number of
seeds. The response on dormancy breaking treatment indicates that there is no
significant effect of soaking treatment in KNO3 and H2O2 solutions on dormancy
period of the IK seeds. The KNO3 and H2O2 solutions have only effect on increasing
the germination rate and on shortening the time period for seeds to germinate.
Moreover, unlike H2O2, there is no residual effect of KNO3 on seeding growth, and on
weight and shape of the IK tuber. To the knowledge of the authors, these findings are
unprecedented and could thus, contribute to the literature.
Keywords
dormancy period; flower; growth; germination; H2O2; IK-tuber; KNO3; seeds
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