Influence of growth media and bulbil sizes on plant growth and corm yield of porang (Amorphophallus muelleri Blume)

Abstract

Porang (Amorphophallus muelleri Blume) is usually cultivated on the field under the tree as natural shading. Porang can also be grown on a pot containing limited amount of growth media. The present research work was carried to evaluate the minimum amount of growth media required for optimum growth and corm yield. The study used bulbils (10 g/bulbil and 20 g/bulbil) and corm (+ 15 g/corm) sown on growth media of 2.5 kg, 5.0 kg and 7.5 kg/pot as treatments. Each treatment was arranged in completely randomized design and was replicated 3 times. Plant height, plant diameter, shoot dry weight, diameter and thickness of corm and fresh weight of corm were measured to evaluate the influence of the treatments on growth and corm yield of porang. The plant growth of porang measured as plant height, plant diameter, shoot dry weight was improved when the planting materials were planted on bigger size of growth media. Bigger size of bulbil caused better growth of porang on each growth medium. The effect of plant materials and the size of growth media on porang growth was in parallel to its effect on corm yield measured as corm diameter, corm thickness and fresh weight of corm. The result of the present study suggests to use bigger bulbil and bigger size of growth media when planted on polyethylene bag. Corm as planting material was better than bulbil because less size of corm produced similar plant growth and corm yield compared to bigger size of bulbil. Therefore, the use of corm as planting material is more favorable to bulbil.