Physiological Performance of Oil Palm Inflorescences (Elaeis guineensis Jacq) After Drought Stress on 3 Different Soil Types in Central Kalimantan

Abstract

Oil palm is a plantation crop that requires an amount of rainfall ranging from 1,750–2,500 mm/year as a condition for good growth. Long dry conditions will have an impact on decreasing productivity. Water deficit can cause growth stagnation and if it occurs continuously can cause irreversible physiological changes in plants, resulting in death. This study aims to study the relationship between water deficit events and the flowering physiology of oil palm plants in 3 soil types in Central Kalimantan. This study is explorative in nature with a quantitative descriptive research method using 3 types of soil: mineral, peat, sand; and 2 plant ages: Young (=7 years) and Prime (> 7 years) and each observation plot consisted of 10 trees selected systematically 5 x 5. The results showed that the occurrence of water deficit had different effects on several phases of FFB formation in phase of sex differentiation & leaf initiated on mineral soil, phase of sex differentiation & female inflorescence on peat and phase of sex differentiation, female inflorescence & inflorescence abortion on sandy soil in the Young plant category. The Prime category occurs in the ripeness, anthesis & inflorescence abortion phases on mineral soils, the anthesis & inflorescence abortion phases on peat and the inflorescence abortion & female inflorescence phases on sandy soils. Apart from the stages of FFB formation, the incidence of water deficit also affects the position of the appearance of bud inflorescences, female & male inflorescences anthesis, male inflorescences receptive & male inflorescences post anthesis, black fruit and red fruit in each soil type and plant category.